Building Bridges Part Two
by dreamsofyesterday1
Summary: Part 24 of the Robyn series. With her family at war Robyn tries to face the truth about her paternity. Bessie seems strangely nervous about something, could it be the result of a violent confrontation with Lily or something more serious? Continuation of Building Bridges. Will the bridges that have been built remain strong when someone tries to burn them?
1. Chapter 1

Building Bridges Part Two

Part twenty-four of the Robyn series

It was an unusually balmy day as he rode his bicycle on his normal route through the madness of Crazytown and into the long tunnel that always frightened him. It was a journey he made once a week and had done for months. It was a journey he hoped he wouldn't have to make much longer.

Emerging from the tunnel he saw something move into his path and he fell from his bike as he swerved to avoid it. Landing heavily on his back he raised his arms defensively as a shape loomed over him and brought a foot down, crushing his abdomen and sending blood spewing out of his mouth. His arms fell limply to the floor as he watched the shape move towards his head just before the foot entered his field of vision.

It seemed his silent prayer had been answered.

Grimacing as the shape took its foot away from the bloody mess it had made on the ground before it; it shook what residual gore remained off. Looking at its handiwork the shape laughed slightly and knelt down beside what had once been the postman.

Reaching into the post bag the shape pulled out several letters, only one was of any consequence and they threw to one side the ones that failed to interest them. Until they touched upon the one they were seeking.

Another laugh escaped the shape as they stood and with careful fingers broke the seal on the envelope. It was difficult for the shape to conceal their excitement as they pulled the sheet of paper from the envelope and unfolded it, revealing the secrets it held.

A smile crossed the shape's face before it tossed its head back and laughed louder than before, not caring this time if anyone heard.

It had what it wanted.

Once the shape had calmed it turned to look at the town beyond, a town under its mercy.

Now more than ever.

Looking back at the paper the shape smiled again, "Well, well, well Robyn. I never would have expected that."

Satisfied with what it had done, the shape departed. It casually threw the empty envelope amongst the mess of letters on the ground.

It had all it needed.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun shone brightly over Lazytown casting shadows away from the eaves of windows that reflected back the sun's warming light. Many of the windows were still shrouded by curtains that slowed the progress of the light into the rooms of those still sleeping soundly in their beds. One window in a house stood out against many, it was the only one in the house uncovered and it seemed the sun had spotted this and expelled all its energy in lighting up the dim recesses within. This light pervaded the senses of one of two occupants in the room who stirred from his slumber and pressed a hand to his forehead.

"Oh God! I think that Frenchman that moved in to my head after Elias knocked me out has come back again." Kit groaned loudly as he struggled to open his eyes. "How much did we have to drink last night?"

"Not enough, I'm still sober." Came the muffled reply.

Hearing this reply Kit sat up sharply, an unwise decision as he lay back down with a bump and covered his head with his hands again, "Urgh! Not enough?! I must have passed out somewhere between the fifteenth or sixteenth shot. How much is left?"

On the edge of his muggy hearing, Kit could hear someone fumbling around as if looking for something with their hand and not their eyes. He heard a 'ching' and muffled thud before the sound of liquid sloshing in a glass bottle sounded near his ear. Opening his eyes a crack he saw a familiar hand holding a glass bottle by its neck, shaking the bottle. He closed his eyes as if satisfied with the answer but something tweaked in his alcohol dulled brain and his eyes flew open as he sat bolt upright again.

"Bloody hell Robyn! That's nearly a whole bottle of Vodka gone! We didn't have that much surely?" Kit exclaimed seeing that only a residual amount of alcohol remained in the bottom of the bottle being waved in front of him.

Putting the bottle down on the bed, Robyn lifted her head from where it had rested face down in the pillow and smiled weakly, "You didn't."

Kit's eyes opened wide, "You had the rest of the bottle by yourself? There was loads left in there!"

"Like I said, not enough." Robyn grunted as she pushed herself up from the bed and sat on the window ledge before opening the window and taking a small package out of her pocket.

"Those aren't cigarettes?! Where the hell did you get those from?" Kit cried, almost hoping that what he was seeing was merely a symptom of his hangover and not actually happening.

Robyn shrugged, "I bummed them off one of the Network guys. I caught him putting them back in his pocket when they fell out."

"If Sportacus catches you with them his bloody hat will spin! Let alone Robbie! Tell me you're not actually going to smoke one."

As if in answer to Kit's question, Robyn reached over to her dresser and picked up a box of matches that she'd always used to light candles. Between her thumb and index finger she grasped one of the cigarettes and popped it between her lips. Lighting the match she brought the flame to end of the cigarette and drew on it until it ignited. Her fingers flicked the match out of the window as she took the cigarette from her mouth and blew wisps of smoke out into the morning air.

Kit's nose wrinkled as he felt his stomach heave and before he could make a move to head to the bathroom he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the carpet. Staggering up from the bed he avoided the mess he'd made before making another one and opening the bedroom door. He looked up weakly at Robbie who he guessed had just come from the stairs after hearing the noise before clutching his stomach and throwing up again. Shaking off any of Robbie's attempts to help him, Kit continued to stagger towards the bathroom where he at least managed to throw up into the toilet once before sliding down the wall next to the toilet.

Robbie was about to go and see if Kit was ok when he caught the faint scent of something above the smell of the patches of Kit's attempt to redecorate the carpet and his eyes met Robyn, standing with a cigarette smouldering between her fingers.

To her credit, Robyn looked a little ashamed at having been caught out and stubbed out the cigarette on the back of the packet resting on the window ledge. She made to walk towards Robbie but the intensity of the gaze he met her with made her shrink back into the room and sit upon the window ledge again. He raised a menacing finger at her before sharply walking towards the bathroom, narrowly avoiding stepping in Kit's mess.

"Are you ok?" Robbie asked as he stood in the bathroom doorway and looked over Kit.

"Ring Doctor Cole, tell him I want to die," Kit moaned.

Robbie couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's melodrama but frowned when Kit threw up again. He walked all the way into the bathroom and started to rub Kit's back; he felt sorry for him and decided he was probably safe to skip the lecture on the evils of alcohol this time.

Satisfied that Kit would be ok for the moment, Robbie went to discuss the evils of smoking with the woman he saw as his daughter regardless of what DNA said when he heard the front door open and a harassed looking Langford came striding up the stairs.

"Careful of the mess." Robbie warned as Langford reached the top of the stairs and like Robbie narrowly avoided stepping in it.

Langford looked down and could see what Robbie meant as he halted and with his eyes he traced the trail of dubious puddles from the hallway to the bedroom.

"What happened here?" He enquired looking back at Robbie.

"Vodka! I hate Vodka!" Kit groaned from behind Robbie.

Langford smiled slightly before remembering what he'd come to say, "I've got some bad news. Our patrol this morning encountered a...corpse near the Crazytown tunnel. We think it was the postman."

"What do you mean, you think?" Robyn asked emerging from the bedroom, sidestepping the puddle in the doorway.

"I'm sorry to be so blunt but his head was caved in. Morgan's been under watch all night and hasn't moved a muscle, I hate to say who I think might have been responsible but there's no concrete way of telling."

Robyn breathed deeply as she made a decision, "Take me to him."


	3. Chapter 3

A tarp had been set up around the corpse that had been discovered by the tunnel and several of the Network officers buzzed around it, efficiently gathering as much evidence as they could from the crime scene. They halted when a car approached and Langford exited it followed closely by Robyn. One or two of the officers looked at one another at the unexpected presence of the young woman and they watched as she tentatively approached the scene.

Langford watched as Robyn raised her hand to part the tarp, an action that was interrupted by her stepping back as if struck by something. In a sudden movement she whirled round and vomited a large quantity of blood before crumbling to her knees, her hands covering her face and dragging themselves roughly over her head which she gripped tightly. All the men gathered at the crime scene were shaken by what they saw and stood immobile as Robyn's fingers knotted in her hair and she cried out as if in pain.

As quickly as the trace had taken hold of her, Robyn came out of it and stood shakily. "It was Lily." She confirmed. "And this was the postman, Lily did this to him."

Concerned faces turned to stunned ones at this revelation and one of the officers moved to stop Robyn pulling back the tarp as she approached it again. He was too slow and her eyes fell on the mangled corpse, he heard her sharp intake of breath as she whirled round and buried her face in his chest.

"Get her out of here!" Langford ordered, "And inform the Mayor that we need to call an urgent town meeting and now!"

The officer holding Robyn did as he was bid and he bundled her into the vehicle. Langford shook his head as the vehicle turned around and pulled away as it drove towards town, he'd known this was a bad idea from the start but he'd been given little choice. As an afterthought he ordered one of his men to contact Sportacus, this was a town meeting it was imperative for him to be involved in.

An hour later everyone in town was gathered in the town hall, they whispered to each other nervously as the Network officers lined the walls and wondered what was going on. They remembered the last time they'd been called to a meeting like this, it had been the night that Lily had revealed herself to them and the night that they had first set eyes on Morgan.

Kathleen sat close to Sportacus as Robbie shuffled seats with a still nauseous Kit who needed the aisle seat so that he could run off to the bathroom without disturbing too many people. Robyn was nowhere to be seen and Kathleen picked up on the nervousness of the two men who seemed to have some idea of what was going on.

The whispers hushed as Langford took to the floor at the front of the room; everyone looked at him as he cleared his throat in preparation to speak.

"This morning at 7am our patrol near the Crazytown tunnel came across a dead body." Langford began gauging the crowd's reaction, it was as he expected but he knew the worst was to come.

Mayor Meanswell stood up, he was as in the dark as any of the citizens in his town. "Who was it? Robyn's not here, it wasn't her was it?"

The Mayor's question was greeted with several gasps and members of the crowd looking amongst themselves frantically as they shared the Mayor's. Sportacus stood quickly, his arm grasped tightly by Kathleen.

Langford held out his hands placating the crowd, "It wasn't Robyn. She's safe, she's with Morgan. Robyn did however help us confirm the identity of the body and the one responsible for putting it there so to speak."

Several mumbles rose from the crowd but they quieted when Langford once again cleared his throat. It was time for him to say the words he knew would send shockwaves through the town.

"The body was that of the postman. The person that put him there was Lily."

As Langford expected many of the members of the crowd reacted to the news, he noted Bessie putting her hand to her mouth, the Mayor sinking slowly back into his chair, Stingy's mouth opening wide, Trixie staring at him blankly and Sportacus setting his jaw as his eyes closed and he shook.

Pixel shook his head; there was something he couldn't understand. "Why would Lily kill the postman?"

"I believe it might have had something to do with this." Langford stated as he held up a piece of the evidence gathered from the crime scene that had been handed to him by one of his men.

Everyone that could see the contents of the plastic bag hanging from Langford's hand stared blankly at it. It was an envelope addressed to Robyn with the words 'CONFIDENTIAL PATHOLOGY RESULTS' emblazoned in big letters at the top.

Sportacus sank into his chair as he read the words on the envelope and he looked at Robbie who recognised it as a similar envelope that had contained his DNA test results.

Whispers resumed in the room as worried faces looked at Sportacus and Robbie. Tension ran rampant in the air until someone broke through it.

"Has anyone heard of the Chinese guy that wandered around aimlessly?" Kit piped up suddenly, "His name was Moo Ching."

Despite the inappropriateness of the joke Kit had made and the news that had rocked everyone in town, several people burst out laughing in spite of themselves including one or two of the Network officers. Langford himself closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger while others shook their head.

Kit for his part looked a little sheepish as he shrugged, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. It was getting rather tense in here and my head hurts. I think this is one of the first times I've cracked a joke that I haven't laughed at. That's bad isn't it?"

No one in the room could disagree with this assessment. It seemed that indeed things had become very bad.


	4. Chapter 4

Robyn and Morgan sat at the table in the Mayor's house in comparative silence. She'd broken the news to him about Lily's recent action in the town, the only person it seemed brave enough to approach him without fear of who he was and what everyone in town knew he was capable of. She saw him as a man, her brother, not some evil monster and even Morgan seemed to marvel at this.

What was it about her?

Absently, Morgan scratched an itch on his leg through his trousers. This did little to ease it and he lifted his leg so his foot rested on the seat of the chair as his hand reached up beneath his trouser leg.

"What's that?" He heard a voice say and looked up.

Robyn had noticed the part of his tattoo that was visible where he'd shifted his trouser leg to scratch his itch and she seemed intrigued by it. Realising that whether he showed her himself or tried to hide it she'd see it eventually, he lifted his trouser leg up and rolled it up as high above his knee as it would go. Shifting his foot slightly he removed his sock so she could see the rest of it.

"Tomorrow is never promised," Robyn whispered as she traced the flowing words with her eyes and followed the shape of the angel upwards. She took in every detail of it and smiled when she saw the angel's face, "Is that me?"

Morgan shook his head, "It wasn't meant to be. I got this tattoo done a couple of years ago, before I knew anything about you or had even met Lily. I went to the tattoo shop near the Greentown Gardens I think it was. I knew what I wanted but I couldn't describe how I wanted the angel to look until I saw a picture of a woman in the window posing with a tattoo of a rose on her shoulder. It was a picture of you. I never would have guessed who you were despite the similarities between us. The tattooist told me your name but I think that's all he told me. I'd never been to that tattoo parlour before; I got my others done elsewhere."

"Others?"

"I have three more, one on my back and two on the back of each arm. They're just written ones, nothing special."

"Can I see?" Robyn asked tentatively.

This request struck Morgan and he shook his head. Something about Robyn's countenance told him that she edging towards dangerous territory and he tried to steer her from her course.

Robyn pouted at being refused, "Just one?"

Morgan sighed with agitation as he gradually began to lose ground on his argument with his sister. Her pouting was annoying him and he knew there was only one way to make her stop.

"Ok, just the one." He murmured as he began to unbutton his shirt carefully, he had almost removed his left arm from his sleeve when a hand grabbed him roughly by the back of his neck and he felt himself being pushed harshly into a wall.

"Let him alone!" Robyn shouted, horrified by Sportacus' physical attack on her brother, his son.

He'd dived through the kitchen window quicker than anyone could blink and grabbed Morgan by the scruff of the neck and pinned him to the wall. It was in this position that he was still stood, leaning his weight into Morgan and holding him firmly against the wall, ignoring the Network officers warnings to let go or be made to.

Suddenly a thought crossed Robyn's mind and she let out a sharp 'ha!' which piqued Sportacus' ears. He turned his head slightly to see her in his peripheral vision.

"I know what you were thinking. You're disgusting. You're so chewed up about what you did with Lily that you thought me and Morgan were going to do the same. It wasn't like that! There was nothing going on!" Robyn hissed with such vehemence that Sportacus released Morgan without thinking and turned to face her.

Sportacus made to speak but before he could Robyn flew from the house, her guardians following close behind her while Morgan's peeled him from the wall and sat him down. Not content with allowing Robyn to walk away this time, Sportacus grabbed Robyn's arm and swung her round once he'd caught up with her. As the air around her stirred, Sportacus detected the smell of something he abhorred and he dropped Robyn's arm like a stone.

"You've been smoking?"

"And drinking!" Robyn retorted almost proud of her actions.

With her arm released, Robyn carried on her way. She failed to notice the surprised looks on the faces of the others in the town, those that her known her for her whole life. Sportacus made to run after her but Kathleen blocked his path.

"Leave her alone for a minute, give her room to breathe and calm down. If you go in there like a bull in a china shop she's only going to come back at you with the same amount of force and you'll get nowhere." Kathleen reasoned.

"But-" Sportacus began to protest.

"No buts. Listen to me. You said ages ago that you were surprised that with all that Robyn's been through she hasn't gone completely off the rails. It looks as though she's now hit that tipping point but she's not doing it to hurt you, or anyone. This is a cry for help, one of the loudest she's ever made because she's here when everyone can see her and knows what's going on. You're a hero...an above average hero and whether you're her father or not you need to step up and answer that cry."

"Hail to the voice of reason!" Called Kit from somewhere in the assembled crowd.

Kathleen couldn't help but giggle and blush a little before she looked up at Sportacus again, "I know that dealing with her hasn't been easy in the past, not since this whole thing happened but I think the road is going to be a little bit easier now. She's doing the two things you hate most in the world but I don't think she's trying to do them to push you away; she's doing them to bring you closer to her and fill that void that she's feeling inside. If anything she's testing you to see if you're really everything she needs and if you can live up to the promises you've made her."

Sportacus nodded as he understood what Kathleen was saying to him. It made sense. At a signal from Kathleen that it was safe to approach Robyn now, he gave her a loose hug before running off in the direction he'd seen her going in.

As Sportacus entered the garden he'd always loved he spotted Robyn sat cross legged on the ground, digging at a patch of earth and flicking the dirt into the air.

"What you doing?" Sportacus asked casually as he came to a stop beside Robyn and sat down with her.

A wry smile curved Robyn's lips as she shifted her eyes to look at Sportacus, "I was contemplating burying you alive, that or myself."

"You'd need a bigger hole for me," Sportacus laughed.

Robyn was about to reply when a loud alarm tore through the air and voices could be heard shouting. A funnel of smoke erupted from the two houses that had been converted to serve as the base of operations for the Network personnel.

It was on fire.


	5. Chapter 5

In amongst the sheer chaos it had created, the shape went unnoticed as it sauntered towards the Mayor's house. They knew that the Mayor was trying to coordinate the fire fighting effort and subsequent evacuation with the Network officers and that there was no chance that anyone would try to stop them as they carried out their mission. There was someone in that house they wanted to see.

A person they wanted very much to talk to.

Turning the piece of paper they held in one hand, they raised their other hand to knock on the door.

Bessie heard the knock on the door, confused about why someone would be knocking on the door with everything going on outside. She'd merely come home to collect something she didn't want to be damaged in the fire if it spread to her house, perhaps it was someone come to call her but if they wanted her to leave why did they knock? She cautiously lifted the door chain and slid its bolt home before opening it a crack.

"Lily!" She gasped as a familiar face smiled at her through the small gap, she tried to slam the door shut but the knocking hand was holding it fast.

Lily's mocking sing song voice drifted through the gap in the door, "Bessie, I thought I saw you come in here. Silly woman, you should be with the others. Never mind, with everyone running around it gives us time to have a little chat."

"Why would I want to chat with you?"

"Because there's something I thought you'd like to see. It's something for Robyn that I know she's been very anxious about, I can't give it to her myself for obvious reasons so I thought you could pass it on for me. I know how much you like to get involved in other people's business."

Bessie watched as a piece of paper was dangled in front of her through the gap. As it caught the light she could see the words 'TEST RESULTS' printed at the top of the page and she knew this was the letter that had gone missing. The results of the DNA test that held a potential key to restoring peace between Lazytown's much loved residents.

Unable to resist the temptation of the lure being waved in front of her, Bessie stopped trying to push the door shut and reached for the paper. Her fingers followed it as it began to slide out of reach. She'd almost missed it when her fingers brushed it before...

Bessie screamed as Lily pulled the door shut, slamming it on her fingers. Lily laughed as she pushed the door open only to slam it again on Bessie's fingers. She was about to slam it a third time when a voice bellowed at her from behind. With a smile she pushed the paper through the gap before turning around.

Robyn was running full speed towards her mother, Lily almost answered the charge but just as she began to move Sportacus came flipping into view. He did a triple corkscrew somersault before landing in the space between the two women and held his arms out wide, shielding Robyn from any potential attack that Lily might make.

"Sportacus!" Lily hissed, "I wouldn't get in my way! I nearly killed you once before, don't make me properly kill you this time. I have business with the girl."

Sportacus stood up to his full height in direct defiance of his sister. This seemed to be his fatal mistake.

With a scream Lily launched herself at Sportacus, grabbing him roughly and swinging him round, hurling him into the wall of the Mayor's house. Robyn became the next target as Lily grabbed her daughter roughly by the hair and threw her to the ground. She raised a foot that stamped on the empty space that had been left by a quick moving Robyn who had rolled out of the way and regained her feet.

Lily seemed somewhat impressed with his as she looked up and saw most of the inhabitants of the town running over after they'd heard her scream above the alarm still throbbing the air it tore through.

Turning her attention back to Robyn, Lily landed a spinning kick on the girl, grabbing her before she hit the floor and hit her several times in quick succession. Lily went to hit Robyn again but a hand grabbed her arm roughly and threw it backwards.

Sportacus jumped out of the way as Lily swung the hand that had been holding Robyn at him and dodged again as her other hand came back.

Lily had had enough, she'd warned Sportacus to stay out of the way twice and he'd failed. In a swift motion she removed a scalpel she'd concealed in her sleeve, he was just within reach of it as she thrust it forward with deadly speed.

Too fast for her stop as Robyn dived into its path.


	6. Chapter 6

Lily closed her eyes tightly as she bundled Robyn's hair in her fist, supporting her daughter's weight as she felt tremors overtake her. She gritted her teeth as she felt hot blood slide over her hand and drip onto her foot. Robyn was gulping for air as her head sunk onto Lily's shoulder and her body continued to convulse.

"Why did you have to get in the way?" Lily whispered through gritted teeth.

She didn't wait for an answer as she pulled the scalpel from Robyn's abdomen before throwing her daughter unceremoniously to the floor at the feet of the people racing over. She levelled a last threatening glare at Sportacus before turning on her heel and running in the opposite direction. Several of the Network officers made to run after her but she'd gained too much ground on them and had disappeared.

Kathleen was the first to attend to Robyn, she was only a nurse but it was her job to do what she could. She put pressure on Robyn's wound as she shouted for someone to summon help and get some blankets.

Doctors Cole and Malone were already en route after having been alerted about the fire in Lazytown and came running over, medical kits in hand, as their car screeched to a halt on seeing the assembled crowd. One of the Doctors attended to Bessie who'd emerged from the house clasping her injured hand while the other went straight to Robyn.

Doctor Cole acted quickly and removed his jacket, passing it to Kathleen he told her to use it to apply pressure to Robyn's wound rather than just her hands. Robyn was conscious and groaned as the pressure was reapplied to her abdomen.

"It's good that you're awake, Robyn. I hate trying to talk to you while you're asleep. I want you to tell me what your plans were for today." Doctor Cole said, trying to calm Robyn down and keep her awake.

"I don't...I don't know really." Robyn gasped smiling at the Doctor, "I thought...I thought maybe I'd get in a fight with Lily. I guess it wasn't such a good idea."

"No it most certainly wasn't young lady. I'm a little disappointed that the blood transfusion we gave you the other week seems to have been wasted. I'm going to have to take you to the hospital and give you another one. Now I'm sure you can agree that Kathleen's doing a bang up job keeping pressure on this stab wound of yours but I'm going to have to ask her to take a quick break while I have a little peep at it. Is that ok?" Doctor Cole waited for Robyn to nod before he motioned for Kit to come over, "That's good, now while I'm looking at your wound I want you to tell Kit how much of an idiot he is for getting that stupid tattoo on his forehead."

Kit did as he was bid and was allowed to pass the wall of Network officers keeping the crowd at bay as they all struggled to see what was happening, voicing their concern for their friend.

He was clearly worried as he knelt down to the side of Robyn's head and brushed her cheek with his hand. She was shaking as he looked into her eyes, he could see the fear that darkened them and he racked his brain for something he could say that would help take her mind off it.

With Robyn being suitably distracted by Kit, Doctor Cole moved himself and took over the application of pressure of Robyn's wound from Kathleen who stood by in case she was needed again. He slowly eased off on the pressure and pulled back the jacket covering the wound. All he needed was a cursory inspection of it before he put the jacket back in place and held it firmly.

"That's not so bad," He tried to reassure Robyn despite the evident tremor in his voice.

Doctor Cole's tone was fooling no one.

"It's bad isn't it?" Robyn said, picking up on the emotions the Doctor emitted.

"I'm afraid so. Robyn, I don't think we're going to have enough time to get you to the hospital. If I'm going to be able to fix you I have to do it here."

Doctor Malone heard Doctor Cole's words and turned abruptly from his occupation with Bessie, "Gerald! You can't!"

"Rory, if we try and move her she's going to keep bleeding and could go into shock. I know this is less than ideal but field medicine never happens in the ideal places. You know as well as I do that this is the only way. I'm sure Bessie won't mind while you come and assist me. Kathleen, in the boot of the car there's an oxygen mask with the balloon attached; get one of the men to help you. I want you to bring it over here and rifle through my bag until you find the box with my scalpels in and an intubation set. Rory, I want you to put a line in Robyn and we're going to get her to go to sleep for a bit while we try and patch her up. I also recommend that these Network men take everyone back to their homes and make them a nice cup of tea. I'm sure I can concentrate better without an audience."

Kathleen nodded and Langford stepped forward as the two raced over to the Doctors' car while the other Network officers escorted the residents of the town back to their homes, save for the Mayor and Bessie who went with Robbie and Kit to their house. Langford opened the boot of the car and lifted the oxygen canister from it. Once the oxygen mask had been set down, Kathleen began to gather the items she needed from Doctor Cole's bag. Doctor Malone made sure that Bessie was ok before joining Doctor Cole, reaching into his own bag for an IV set that he could use to administer anaesthetic through.

It took Doctor Malone some minutes to find a suitable vein but he eventually managed to insert a canula into Robyn's hand. He drew up the drugs he needed and nodded to Doctor Cole to say he was ready.

"Ok Robyn, Rory is going to inject some stuff into your hand and it's going to make you sleepy. You're going to be ok, there's no need to be frightened. Now I'm sure you know the drill quite well, as Rory injects the anaesthetic I want you to count for me from ten. When you're asleep we're going to intubate you to make sure you're breathing well and I'm going to do what I can to fix you up and make you good as new. Is that ok?"

Robyn nodded and Doctor Malone proceeded to inject the anaesthetic, he counted down with Robyn until her eyes closed and she went still. As soon as Robyn was unconscious, Doctor Cole gathered up his intubation kit and went to work. When he was satisfied that the tube was in place he connected it to the mask and summoned Kathleen to squeeze the balloon, maintaining Robyn's breathing.

Doctor Malone put on a pair of surgical gloves as he removed the jacket from Robyn's stomach and threw it to one side. He could now see why Doctor Cole had made the decision he had.


	7. Chapter 7

Robyn felt someone brushing her cheek with their hand. This hand seemed familiar and her mind began to awaken from its slumber. As her awareness grew she heard faint whispers, three voices she knew well. One of the voices belonged to the hand brushing her cheek, it was calling her.

"Good girl, Robyn. That's it. Wakey wakey." She heard the voice say as she stirred and her eyes fluttered.

Eyes still closed, Robyn knew she wasn't in Lazytown anymore. "Where am I?"

"Room 268B of Greentown Hospital, one of the few rooms I imagine you haven't been in yet." The voice said again with a tinge of humour.

"And there was me hoping I was in Narnia," Robyn joked finally opening her eyes and seeing Doctor Cole perched on the edge of her bed and Sportacus and Bessie sat beside it. "What hit me?"

Doctor Cole sobered as he told Robyn what she needed to know, "Lily. She did some real damage, we had to try to repair what we could when we put you out in town and you were airlifted here for the rest. You've had major surgery. Lily drove that scalpel into you at quite an angle; she ruptured your spleen, slashed through the top of your stomach and hit your liver. I can't imagine the force she put through that swing but had it connected with Sportacus and not you he wouldn't be sitting here now. Saying that, had I and Rory not been in the Outreach clinic at the time the alarm sounded and had been here, neither would you."

"Am I going to be ok?" Robyn asked, nervously.

"Yes, yes of course." Doctor Cole reassured taking Robyn's hand, "We've had to remove your spleen but everything else we've managed to fix. You've got quite the cocktail of drugs and antibiotics running through you at the moment and we've transfused two pints of blood. As a precaution I've kept you under for longer than would normally be recommended but considering the amount of transfers you've had it was the best thing to do. Now the burning question that you're always asking, we'll start thinking about discharge and I mean thinking, in about a week. You have a drain in situ which will have to be removed and we'll be running these drugs through you for a while yet. We'll also have to perform a lot of blood cultures to make sure that we've avoided sepsis and keep an eye on your blood leukocyte levels."

Robyn looked a little lost but seemed to be taking it in, albeit slowly.

Doctor Cole smiled gently, "Now normally with patients that have had their spleen removed you see a decline in their immunity, bearing in mind that you have above average immunity I'm not really sure how this will affect you. To be on the safe side and being aware that winter is coming, I'm going to prescribe you long term low dose antibiotics to give you a boost and some broad spectrum antibiotics for you to keep handy just in case you get an infection. If anyone gets a cold or other infection I'd avoid them like the plague to keep the risk of you getting ill low."

As he had finished speaking, Doctor Cole's bleeper went off and he dismissed himself with a quick apology, patting Robyn's hand.

Robyn shook her head briskly as if it would help make all the information Doctor Cole had hammered her with sink in faster but the end result was her feeling dizzy. She'd only just absorbed what the Doctor had said about Sportacus.

"I saved your life?" She said weakly.

Sportacus smiled and stood up, perching himself where Doctor Cole had sat. "You did. I don't know how I'd repay you and I never really expected it. Just promise me one thing."

"Just leave the hero thing to me, ok?" Sportacus smiled as he playfully tweaked Robyn's nose and brushed her hair back from her face.

Bessie's presence soon registered again with Robyn as she looked over at the older woman, "How's your hand?"

"It'll heal, dear. Doctor Malone said you came just at the right time. If Lily had slammed the door on my fingers one more time he said I could have suffered permanent loss of use of them or even lost them altogether. I owe you too."

"Why did Lily attack you anyway?" Robyn frowned, her mother's maniacal laughter echoing in her mind as she relived seeing Lily slamming the door on Bessie's hand.

"Perhaps I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, dear." Bessie lied, acutely aware of the piece of paper she had in her pocket, the piece of paper Lily had given to her.

Before Robyn could push Bessie any further for information a strange sound came from outside the door and it was pushed open from outside before a small red rug was rolled out over the threshold and Kit entered blowing on a toy trumpet.

"All rise for the Mayor!" He declared solemnly before blowing the trumpet again and standing aside for a very bemused looking Mayor.

Sportacus, Bessie, Robyn and several of the nurses that had gathered outside the room to watch this strange spectacle burst out laughing. Mayor Meanswell's face crumpled before he started to laugh as well and shook his head at Kit.

"I did not ask him to do that!" Mayor Meanswell laughed, pointing at Kit.

"No that's true. I did have a little parade lined up with a monkey with cymbals but he ran off."

An outraged Doctor Cole re-entered the room, "You _did not_ bring a monkey into this hospital?!"

"Well it depends whether or not you consider Langford to be a monkey." Kit joked.

"I heard that!" Snapped Langford as he appeared in the doorway. "I'm not a monkey."

"Well you are shaped a bit like an ape." Kit shot back, enjoying this little exchange with Langford.

At this point several of the patients able to walk around had gathered with the nurses in the corridor that were watching the exchange and many hadn't stopped laughing.

"If Langford's a monkey what does that make me? Or you?" Robbie interjected with a smile as he appeared behind Langford.

Pondering this, Kit scratched his chin. "Oh I don't know, a kind of messed up combination between a demented zebra and an ostrich."

"Better that than a guy who runs around everywhere with mug tattooed on his forehead."

"Says the man that wears trousers up to his nipples!" Kit threw in.

Robbie faked an insulted expression before turning to Langford, "Hit him for me will you? You might get a better swing than me."

Doctor Cole saw Langford raise his hand to swat Kit round the back of the head and stopped him, "Not in this hospital. By all means, take him outside, just outside the front door would be ok and give him a slap. Kit, have you ever considered cheering people up in here full time?"

Kit laughed, "It depends if Robyn is planning on being here full time or not."

Robyn giggled and stuck her tongue out at Kit who responded in kind before turning back to Doctor Cole, "So how are you holding up, what with being in an empty house?"

"Well it's a little lonely," Doctor Cole sighed, "And quiet."

"While Robyn's in here you can pinch her side of the bed. Come and sleep with me big boy, I'll give you lots of cuddles and you won't feel lonely anymore." Kit winked before pursing his lips and making kissing noises while waggling his eyebrows.

A truly wicked grin passed Doctor Cole's features as he grabbed Kit and pulled him into a big kiss. Kit's eyes opened wide and he waved his arms around. When Doctor Cole released him he rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand.

"There was tongue in that one!" He cried in mock horror before running off.

Everyone in the room and corridor was roaring with laughter at this scene. Sportacus had been laughing so hard he'd fallen off the bed and Bessie had lost all control over her normally dignified composure as she snorted which made everyone laugh even more.

Wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, Doctor Cole gasped, "I've been waiting to do that for years!"


	8. Chapter 8

It rested in her pocket, weighing her down like a tonne weight dragging on her soul. She knew what the paper was and the secret it held. She knew she should return it to the people it belonged to but when she'd seen them in the hospital, their laughter and the tears they'd shed together as they relived old memories it seemed as though they were like a family again. All of their previous hostilities seemed to have been brushed aside as they pulled together for the sake of their youngest member. A girl who had put herself on the line for a man who some believed didn't deserve it. The secret the sheet of paper held could destroy that for good.

She couldn't do that to them.

Her nature haunted her as she thought about that sheet of paper. It was almost too great a temptation for her to ignore. Many times she'd thought about unfolding the paper and reading it.

What harm could it do if she only read it and discovered the secret?

No one had to know what it said if the result was bad, but what was a bad result? What did Robyn want it to say? What did Sportacus want it to say?

Bessie shook the thoughts from her mind. She couldn't open it, she couldn't read it, she couldn't give it back.

But she was a busy body. She lived for gossip and what she held in her pocket was twenty four carat gossip, platinum gossip, the diamond of gossip.

And a weapon.

She had to destroy it. The words printed on that paper could harm so many people. It could wreck everything that people had spent so much time trying to rebuild. Everyone thought that Lily still had the sheet of paper. They wouldn't suspect _her_; they wouldn't know that she had it all along.

They wouldn't know she'd destroyed it by burning it to a cinder or shredding it in her office at the Town Hall. What they didn't know couldn't hurt them.

"Bessie, are you ok?" A voice broke through her restless thoughts and she looked up.

"Yes, dear. I think I'm just tired. It's been a long day and I think the pain killers the doctors have given me are taking their toll. Have you seen your Uncle?"

Stephanie shook her head, "I think he was going over some things with the Network people, I saw him walk somewhere with Langford ages ago. Do you want me to go and see if I can find him?"

It was Bessie's turn to shake her head as she patted Stephanie's hand with her uninjured one, "It's ok, dear. He's busy. I'm just glad none of them were hurt in the fire, its lucky they were all either in the meeting or here watching Morgan."

"I still don't know why you've got him here. I don't even know why Robyn wants anything to do with him. It's creepy. What if he does the same thing to her that Cain did?"

"I don't think that will happen. If he was going to do that he would have done it while Robyn was at Lily's. As for why she spends time with him and wants to see him, I don't know, but Robyn has a big heart, you know that. She can see things in people no one else can."

"I still don't like it." Stephanie said dismissively as she stood up to put her coffee cup in the sink.

She'd walked to the table to sit back down but as she looked down the hallway she spotted Morgan being helped to walk from his bedroom to the kitchen. This was the closest she'd come to him, closer than she'd ever wished to come to him. When the alarm had been sounded at the start of the fire he'd been evacuated from the immediate vicinity like her and the others but taken in the opposite direction to everyone else.

His resemblance to Sportacus disturbed her. It was as though he were a much younger version of him with longer hair and a goatee instead of a moustache. How could a man that was so evil look like a man that was so good?

It was the same with Robyn.

As her friend had grown older she'd begun to recognise features in her that belonged to her mother. Robyn's eyes had darkened to the shade of Lily's; no longer did they hold the light within Sportacus'. Morgan's eyes were just the same though they seemed to hold so much behind them.

Morgan approached the kitchen with caution. The pink haired woman was staring daggers at him, moving herself subconsciously into a position to protect the blue haired woman. He kept his eyes low, submissive. The pink haired woman's gaze on him seemed to intensify as he sat down at the table.

He found the strength to break his silence, "I'm not here to harm anyone. It's not my intention."

"Oh like you didn't mean to harm anyone the first time you came here, or the second. Both times you've come here someone's died! More people could have died here today thanks to your godforsaken mother!" Stephanie spat.

"Lily isn't my responsibility. What I do is my own, what I have done is my own. I didn't ask to be brought here. I didn't ask to be kept in this house and be shown the kindness I have, much less from strangers and the Mayor of this town itself."

Stephanie scoffed, "Well if you don't like it you can always leave! I certainly won't try and stop you. Murderers aren't welcome here."

"Stephanie!" Mayor Meanswell snapped as he entered the house, "That's enough! I won't have you talking like that to guests in my home."

"But Uncle..."

"No! I won't hear any more of it. I can't deny Morgan's past anymore than anyone else but he will remain here until he's well enough to face justice for his crimes."

'Or kill us all!' Stephanie thought to herself as she stormed out of the house and went home.


	9. Chapter 9

As she stormed from her Uncle's house Stephanie failed to see the excited terrier jumping up and down at her presence and demanding a fuss from her. She failed to notice as he barked a short bark to gain her attention and reproach her for seeming to ignore him. He was right in her path as he tried once more to get her to pay heed to him, trying to jump up at her as best he could on three legs.

Stephanie didn't notice him until she began to fall, tripping over the dog that had almost gotten literally under her feet.

Strong arms halted her rapid descent to the ground and righted her back on her feet, holding her until they were sure she was steady. Stephanie was a little dazed as she looked up and saw a big 9 where the Sportacus she'd always known had worn his crystal, as she looked down again she could see Skip hunched up with his paw covering his eyes by way of apology for his actions. She quickly stroked his back before telling him that the fault was hers and standing up to look at the man still standing before her.

"Thanks," She whispered, a slight blush colouring her cheeks and making them the same shade of pink as her hair.

Nine waved his hand dismissively, "No problem, it's my job. You were in quite a hurry. Has something happened?"

"You don't even know the half of it!" Stephanie blurted as she temporarily forgot herself, her blush deepening under Nine's piercing scrutiny.

A frown knitted Nine's greying eyebrows together and his thin lips turned down at an angle similar to his eyebrows. Something was going on, he could tell by the way that Stephanie was avoiding his gaze and the way she'd come charging out of her Uncle's house. There was an atmosphere about the town and the looks he'd received as he climbed down from his airship had been enough to tell him that a number of people were distinctly uncomfortable with his presence.

Nine raised his hand to Stephanie's elbow, his touch forcing her to look at him for a fatal moment. "I think we need to have a little talk. I think you need to tell me what's going on. Shall we go to your place or mine?"

With her eyes open wide and a lump forming in her throat, Stephanie broke Nine's contact her with and walked solemnly towards her house. She knew he was following her and she had absolutely no idea where to start as she prepared herself to tell him everything.

Pixel sat across the table from Nine as he watched the words he'd been forced to say sink in, a myriad of emotions playing on his face. He'd taken on the responsibility of filling in the older Sportacus on recent events after Stephanie had broken down under the weight of the task ahead of her.

There was no one else that he could pass the task of bearer of bad news onto.

Without warning, Nine stood with a speed familiar to all who knew Sportacus Ten. His ice blue eyes flashed a cursory thank you before he ran from the house and in the direction of one of the two people he had an urge to see.

Pixel could only look on as Nine barged his way into the Mayor's house.


	10. Chapter 10

"So it's true. You are here." Nine stated his eyes meeting the man he knew to be his grandson, a grandson he'd only met once before.

Mayor Meanswell stood up, shaking off his surprise at the door suddenly flying open with Nine appearing behind it. "Nine, it's good to see you again my old friend. But what do you mean by forcing your way into my home?"

Nine's eyes hadn't left Morgan as he responded, "Someone told me that he was here. I had to see it for myself and I scarcely believe it. Why aren't you with your mother?"

"She beat me because I helped Robyn escape that day. When I left here after killing Elias I went into hiding but Lily found me." Morgan explained wearier of the man before him than he had been of any number of people that had come before him since his arrival in Lazytown.

"And we're to believe that she didn't beat you merely to lure everyone here into a false sense of security and trick them into taking you in so that you can kill them all when they least expect it?" Nine questioned before feeling a hand placed on his shoulder.

"I sincerely doubt that's the case, Nine." The voice said behind him.

Reluctant to turn his back on the murderer in his midst, Nine shifted his head only slightly. "Who are you to come to that assumption?"

"I'm Langford, deputy head of the division here. We've met before, briefly. Admittedly the last time we spoke things became heated and by all accounts you left town. As for my supposed assumption as to why the scenario you came up with is unlikely, I believe that Robyn would have been able to detect even the subtlest notion from Morgan of doing anyone here any harm. I'm sure she's read him more than once."

At this Nine did turn around and fully, his face asking the question before his voice. "Read him?"

Langford seemed slightly taken aback but regained his composure as he beckoned for Nine to follow him from the house. "I think perhaps there are a few things I should tell you about your granddaughter."

As the front door closed, the Mayor sat back down. He smiled reassuringly at Morgan who still wore the expression of a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car upon his features. It seemed the impromptu reunion of grandson and grandfather had surprised him greater than any of the others in the room.

Nine followed Langford to the house that he knew to be Robyn's. He was confused about why he would be brought here when Pixel had told him that Robyn was in hospital and Robbie and Kit were with her but he remembered seeing the building serving as the Network's base had been badly damaged in the fire. As he entered the house, Nine could see several of Langford's men milling about the house, a roll of carpet was stood in a corner in the living room and the sound of furniture being shifted and a knee kicker being used to fix new carpet reached his ears as he detected the smell of new carpet.

"What's happening here?" He asked, not understanding the nature of the work Langford's men were doing.

"Kit was sick in numerous places on the carpet upstairs this morning. It seemed easier to replace the carpet than clean it. This is the only place I could think of to bring you as our base is out of action for the time being." Langford explained before spying one of his men, Balodis, coming down the stairs, "How goes it?" He asked him.

Balodis smiled, "Nearly done, sir. As we had to move the furniture to get to the carpet in the bedroom we've taken the liberty of rearranging it a little bit for them. It's a better layout now than it was and gives them more room to move, we thought it would be a nice gesture for Robyn for when she comes home. We found some odd bits and pieces tucked behind their wardrobe which we've put to one side for them to sort through, in case they might have forgotten about them."

"Well done Balodis, I'm sure they'll be pleased with that. I need to have a word with Nine so could I suggest perhaps you boys finish up later? I'm pretty sure that Trixie mumbled something about being happy to keep you occupied and ogle you for a little while if you were stuck for something to do before the shift change."

"Yes sir!" Balodis nodded before whistling loudly, signalling he wanted attention from his colleagues who promptly appeared at the top of the stairs. "Break time."

One of the other Network officers nodded, "You heard the man lads. Let's clear out and finish this later. It won't take long once we get going again."

Langford and Nine watched as the officers descended the stairs and walked out. Once the door had closed behind them Langford motioned for Nine to take a seat on the sofa but the offer was declined. Not one to turn down an opportunity to sit down when he had a good chance, Langford sat in Robbie's comfy chair.

He felt it best to say what he had to say to Nine sitting down and was sure that the man standing resolutely before him would also soon feel the need to sit.

Nine listened to what Langford was telling him and none of it seemed real. His thoughts turned back to the missives from his granddaughter that he had sent back to her, the phone calls he had rejected and the time he'd come face to face with her and replaced the image of her face with that of his front door. He wished he had read the letters now, that he had answered the small voice pleading to be heard on the other end of the phone and invited in his own flesh and blood rather than shutting her out in the cold. Only then might he have had some idea about her unique abilities and only now would he have understood her apparent trust in Morgan.

But where had these abilities come from?


	11. Chapter 11

Robyn opened her eyes. She wasn't in Greentown Hospital anymore; she was by the lake just outside of her home town. It was night time and everything seemed eerily quiet around her until she heard a distant humming. She turned her head as her eyes searched the landscape around her for the origin of the haunting sound. They fell on the glittering street lights of the sleeping town just at the edge of her vision but her ears told her that the sound was much closer than that.

Her eyes scanned the fields that surrounded the town, they were devoid of the moths that usually skipped amongst the clusters of wild flowers and the cicada of crickets that sung the songs the stars danced to in the sky.

The threads of humming spread into the tapestry of song as her eyes moved to the tunnel separating her town from the next and fell upon a shape moving in the darkness. As it grew closer the song tickling her ears became louder and the shape began to take an all too familiar form though there was something strange about it.

A chill ran down Robyn's spine as she became aware of another presence near her, one she had felt before that was standing as still and silent as she. Its hollow eyes with a hole in the forehead above them seemed fixed on the back of her head as her eyes followed the moving form of her mother as it drew closer. Realisation dawned on her as she heard faint cries beneath the song her mother sung.

In her arms Lily held two babies.

For a moment of sheer panic Robyn thought that she had been seen as her mother's song died in her throat and her eyes seemed to burn straight through her but instead Lily seemed to shrug and continued her path towards the lake.

Robyn's blood seemed to freeze within her as she watched Lily kneel down on the bank of the lake and place the babies on the ground one at a time.

"Why are you showing me this, Mordayne?" Robyn asked her voice hushed as she spoke the name of the presence behind her.

Behind his expressionless mask, Mordayne smiled. "It is time you understood."

Robyn wanted to run as she saw her mother pick up one of the babies but a force held her fixed to the spot on which she stood. She fought against it with all her might as she watched her mother place one of the babies in the water and pick up the other.

"You cannot interfere," Mordayne's rasping voice sounded behind her.

She screamed uncontrollably as she saw a Watcher emerge from beneath the surface of the lake gathering the baby that had been placed in the water in its silhouetted arms and carry it to a place beyond life.

Still Mordayne's hollow eyes were fixed on her back as her screams continued, her disbelieving eyes watching as Lily lowered the remaining baby into the water before standing up and starting to walk away in silence.

A second watcher emerged from the rippling surface of the lake, the second baby lying still in its arms as water dripped from its swaddling clothes. Robyn's screams silenced as she felt Mordayne walk through her and head towards the Watcher. Still held by the force he exerted on her she felt herself drift towards him as he took the baby from the Watcher and held it in his arms.

"You were strong even then," He said as the Watcher faded. "There was still life in you, just the vaguest whisper but there was life still in you."

Robyn's shaking hand found her mouth as she understood what was happening. As Mordayne ran his hand over the baby's face it stirred and opened its eyes. Robyn was shaken to her very core as she saw the hollow spaces where the baby's eyes should have been before its eyelids closed and a pair of blue eyes shone from the sockets that had momentarily been empty as they reopened.

Mordayne's hollow eyes found hers as he lowered the baby gently to the ground. As the baby began to cry he rejoined her and watched Lily turn swiftly, her face registering shock as her eyes fell on the baby she thought she'd left for dead.

A violently sobbing Robyn looked on as Lily crept towards the baby and gathered it up in her arms. Her mother looked about her, confused as she tried to work out how the baby had gone from the lake to the shore but seemed to accept it.

"Perhaps you'll serve some kind of purpose after all. Let's go and see your father." Robyn heard Lily whisper before she carried the baby towards the airship floating in the sky above the town.

Mordayne turned to Robyn as everything around them faded to a bright white expanse of nothingness. He too began to fade as she felt his hold on her disappear.

His voice seemed to echo as he rasped, "Now you understand."

The Judges had given her her abilities.


	12. Chapter 12

It had happened before he'd been able to react through anything other than sheer instinct. Robyn had awoken suddenly from a fitful sleep, sitting bolt upright with a scream before her body began to shake from the sobs that racked it. Without thinking he'd sat on the bed and wrapped his strong arms tightly around her. Without fear of reproach or rejection he'd held her firmly. She'd clung to him as tight as he held her in complete contrast to the times when she had pushed him away. His lips met the top of her head as he tried to soothe her, one hand gently pulling at her hair as he combed his fingers through it in a rhythm he'd found effective when comforting her in the past.

A technique only he knew.

Robbie and Kit almost dropped the drinks in their hands as they entered the room. They were greeted with the most unexpected sight of Robyn clinging to Sportacus as he tried to quiet her sobs. He looked at them helplessly as his age old technique seemed to fail and his efforts did little to calm her.

Kit quickly took Robbie's bottles of drink from his hand as he motioned for him to go and help Sportacus before juggling the four bottled drinks he held in his hands until he could place them on the locker beside Robyn's bed and join him. Robbie had perched on the opposite side of the bed to Sportacus and had also wrapped his arms around Robyn. Kit pushed her pillow aside as he climbed onto the bed, sitting behind Robyn and wrapping his arms around her also while resting his head against her shoulder.

Doctor Cole entered the room but stopped dead in the doorway when he saw the picture before him. Robyn was wrapped in a triangle of love, three men she loved and who adored her surrounding her as they tried to soothe her. He felt a tear run down his cheek as he silently left the room and closed the door behind him.

What he'd come into the room to do could wait.

It took time but with the three of them working together to calm Robyn, her sobs subsided and she leant back against Kit's chest as her body relaxed. Robbie and Sportacus shared a glance before loosening their grip on her and readjusting themselves. They stood up from the bed and Sportacus helped Kit lean forward slightly so he could slide the pillow in behind him as he registered the discomfort the younger man felt from leaning on the metal bars of the bed. Kit nodded his thanks as he leant back on the pillow before grimacing as he brought his legs up on the bed and stretched them out on the mattress. It had seemed like a good idea at the time to straddle the bed but the muscles in his thighs protested heavily.

No one spoke as Robyn seemed to fall into a more restful sleep than the one that Sportacus had witnessed. Kit remained behind her as he stroked her cheek tenderly with his hand; a smile touched his lips as he saw Robbie hold a hand out for Sportacus to take. Peace was made as Sportacus took the hand offered to him and shook it.

Robbie didn't miss the glimmer of pain that showed on Sportacus' face as the man shook his hand. He narrowed his eyes as he thought of questioning its origin but remembered that Sportacus had been with Robyn when Lily had attacked. Putting two and two together he reached out to the side with his spare hand and pressed the call bell on the wall, all the while looking at the man before him.

"I think Sportakook's hurt," Robbie said without looking round when he heard the door open and someone enter the room.

Doctor Cole shook his evident surprise at seeing Sportacus and Robbie holding hands from his face as he came further into the room. "I think he might want to come with me then and we'll have a look at him."

Sportacus felt Robbie release his hand and he walked round the bed to follow the Doctor out of the room. Confusion filled him with a tangible feeling of happiness as he walked down the corridor and replayed the past few minutes in his memory. Robbie had held out an olive branch to him, a move he could never have expected and he wondered if the intention behind it had been a temporary resolution of their problems or a visible effort at working towards fixing them.

A light was turned on in the room he'd walked into and it seemed as if the action of the light being turned on turned the light in his brain back on and he looked up apologetically at Doctor Cole as he realised the man had been speaking to him on their journey to the room and he'd been entirely lost in thought.

"It's alright, I was surprised enough at seeing you and Robbie shaking hands. I can't imagine how you felt. I'd gathered you weren't listening to me when I started talking about being abducted by aliens and having dinner with Henry the eighth." Doctor Cole joked before pointing to a chair in the room, "Take a seat."

Sportacus did as he was bid and watched as the Doctor closed the door and came over to him.

"Where does it hurt?" Doctor Cole asked as he wondered where to begin examining the muscle bound hero in front of him.

Knowing it would be easier to show the Doctor rather than explain Sportacus removed his shirt, clenching his teeth as he lifted his arms to pull it over his head. He heard Doctor Cole make an 'oof' sound as his eyes fell on Sportacus' shoulder, swollen and blackened by a deep bruise that travelled from the crest of his shoulder down his back. Finger marks were clearly visible near his ribs where someone had to have grabbed him and dug their fingers in.

"How did that happen? To use an expression I've heard Kit use once or twice, that must have caned."

"Lily grabbed me and threw me into the Mayor's house when I tried to stop her getting to Robyn. It hurt at first but it didn't seem important when Lily was attacking Robyn and I moved in to stop her."

"Before Robyn got stabbed," Doctor Cole nodded, up to speed on the situation. "It must have hurt when Robyn was hanging onto you in there and you were hugging her? How did you manage?"

Sportacus went to shrug but his shoulder throbbed in a warning not to, "I just did what I had to."

"It was more than that. You did it because you love her. I really feel like I should bang your heads together sometimes but then I'm certain you've got a very thick skull and I wouldn't want to give the poor girl any more brain damage. This whole mess you, her and Robbie have gotten yourselves into with the DNA stuff could have been avoided or at least handled slightly better. Never mind what's done is done and as a Doctor I must remain impartial, just you make sure that you do nothing to besmirch her good humour and the steps towards normality that you've made."

There was no mistaking the earnestness in the Doctor's words and Sportacus thanked him for his help and his honesty. He knew there was still a lot of ground to make up with Robyn and he had vowed the minute she'd put her life in danger for him that he wouldn't rest until all the wrongs between them were righted.


	13. Chapter 13

It sat on the desk in front of her. Stark white contrasted against the brown of the wood surface. Her fingers ached, but not those of the hand that had been damaged by Lily. It was an ache she was finding harder and harder to resist as time went on. She had run the same arguments through her mind again and again and they were becoming tired. With every relay her resolve to destroying the sheet of paper became weaker and weaker, at least until she had discovered the secret within.

She'd come so close to discovering the secret.

She'd unfolded the paper.

She'd been unable to open her closed eyes to read it.

She'd felt ashamed as she folded the paper back over again, her eyes still closed until the secret was again concealed and safe from her knowledge. As she'd put the sheet of the paper on the desk her eyes had fallen on the photo of the young girl that the secret belonged to. She'd brought the picture closer to her and run her fingers over the face smiling at her. The light blue eyes glowing with that smile seemed to hold a hint of pleading to her to do the right thing.

But what was the right thing?

With her eyes still fixed on the photograph, Bessie didn't hear her office door open or the footsteps of someone entering. It was only when the person cleared their throat that she realised there was anyone there. With a start she tore her eyes from the picture and looked up at the man before her, a number nine on his chest.

"I'm sorry I startled you," He apologised, "I saw you through the window. You looked so far away, like someone that needs to talk to someone. Whose is the picture that you were so focussed on?"

Bessie held the frame with her good hand and turned it round so Nine could see it. She saw the pain of recognition pass over his features as he looked at the photograph. He picked it up and seemed to become as lost in it as she had. It struck her that he'd probably never seen a picture of his granddaughter as a child before.

Nine looked up from the picture that had arrested his attention when Bessie broke the silence in the room. "I have more pictures of her, some from when she was a baby. We gave Robyn a photo album for her eighteenth birthday with loads of pictures in. She still has it somewhere; you should ask if you could look through it some time. I think she kept all of the letters she sent to you as well that you sent back."

This last statement took Nine aback. It seemed to be no secret that he had returned all of the letters ever sent to him by Robyn but he'd never expected her to keep them all. With a heavy heart he placed the photograph back on the desk and spied the folded piece of paper on the desk. His sharp eyes didn't miss Bessie flinch as she saw him look at it and he could tell that something about it disturbed her greatly.

Subconsciously, Bessie tried to reach for the paper but Nine's eyes caught her in a grip as strong as that in his hand. She knew he could see how much it disturbed her and she tried to formulate an excuse, a reason why his looking upon it would upset her so but she couldn't think of anything. She flinched again as his hands unfolded and his fingers went to reach for the paper.

Nine's fingers brushed the paper, they clamped down on it as he began to slide it towards him. He ignored Bessie's stammering attempts to give him an explanation about the paper as he picked it up.

He'd just started to unfold it when his crystal beeped.

Bessie sunk in her chair as Nine dropped the paper and ran to answer his crystal. It had floated down onto the desk and landed in the middle of it. Unfolded.

She couldn't resist the temptation any longer. It was there, the secret. It was staring her in the face and her good hand reached out for it.

With bated breath she read the words on the paper.


	14. Chapter 14

Two Sportacus' came face to face. Two Sportacus' had seen the trouble and gone to deal with it. Only one had a crystal and stood in his hero uniform, the other was in plain clothes. Two pairs of ice blue eyes stared at each other as the animal that had been responsible for the disturbance hobbled off and hid in a bush. One pair of eyes burned with disappointment while the other pair displayed a mixture of shame and surprise. Neither Sportacus spoke or moved.

They just stared at each other as rigid as statues.

Nine's eyes remained fixed on Ten's as he took in every detail of a face resembling his own, different only in age. Even though the face was one he had looked upon every day for eighteen years and seen regularly for another twenty seven it seemed to him like the face of a stranger. He didn't know the man the face belonged to anymore. He'd looked upon it long enough and turned away to go back to where he had come from.

"Dad!" He heard his son shout from behind him.

Nine turned back sharply and pointed an angry finger at his namesake, "Don't Dad me! You're not my son! You disgust me! You lied to me and your mother! You fathered a child, more than one child with your sister and all the while you kept it from us! I thought Lily was bad enough but like your sister you've brought shame to our family name. You've destroyed our heritage and made a mockery of everything me and your forefathers stood for!"

Kit had had enough of seeing Nine rally at Sportacus Ten and jumped into the fray, "Now you hang on a bloody minute Mr Grand High Poo-bah Bubba Butt Crack! For starters we're not even sure yet that he is Robyn's or Morgan's or any other child that that psychotic Harpy of a daughter of yours has managed to squeeze out, father. And I also sincerely doubt he woke up and thought 'hmm, this looks like a good day to go and bang my sister'! What he did is wrong, clearly, but did you consider that it was something he actually had a choice in or maybe he did it for a reason?"

"What possible reason could anyone have for doing something like _that_?"

"May I suggest first that we find somewhere to carry on this discussion, debate or whatever you want to call it where we don't have an audience?" Kit said as he swept his hand in the direction of the small crowd that had assembled at hearing the commotion, "Then maybe we can try and work it out."

Nine scoffed as he waved a dismissive hand and went to turn away again, "I have nothing else to say."

"Then may I kindly suggest that you go home? Not just back to your airship but back home to the Island in the North you came from. I'm not sure how things look from up there but down here we're trying to sort things out. There's been enough fighting and arguing. I'll be the first one to admit that I've been tempted to knock your silly sod of a son's block off for all the pain he's caused but if Robyn can call an end to it, so can I. I know it's not just her he needs to straighten things out with; it's you and his mum too. If you've disowned him, fair enough, but what kind of a man does that make you if you walk away now? You told us you wanted to be a part of Robyn's life but you can't do that if you can't accept the man that may have made her. Stand by your principles, Nine. Stand by everything you taught him about being a human being, about being a hero and listen to him."

Kit's words had forced Nine to turn back and face him. To face his son who stood as though he had been struck and was staring at Kit with his mouth wide open.

"Where would you suggest we talk? I'm to assume it would be somewhere neutral?" Nine said at last, breaking the silence had that fallen.

Ziggy piped up from the crowd, "You can use my place!"

"No, they can use _mine_." Stingy argued.

"Stingy! I offered first!" Ziggy protested.

Stingy tilted his head back, folding his arms he looked at Ziggy through the end of his nose, "My place is better. Yours is probably covered in candy wrappers and messy, unlike _mine_."

Clenching his fists and stamping his foot, Ziggy began to get annoyed. Stingy took this affront personally and unfolded his arms as he started to ball his hands into fists also.

"Boys, boys! Calm down!" Trixie called out as she separated the two, "They'll go where they want. Wherever they go I don't think they want to be standing around listening to you two argue. Besides, if you start fighting you know that there are enough people here to stop you and I'm sure the Network guys won't hesitate to drop you like stones."

"Humph!" Stingy grunted as he turned on his heel and walked off with his arms folded once more.

Kit winked a thank you to Trixie who smiled in return. She waved at the men briefly before following after Stingy who she distracted with a playful shove before running away.

Ziggy almost forgot that he was twenty seven years old when he started to jump up and down with excitement at winning an argument with Stingy. He soon caught himself and quickly ran off to tidy his house up in anticipation for his guests.

Nine shook his head as Ziggy bustled past him while Kit clapped Sportacus on his uninjured shoulder.

"You know, I was really curious about how many juggling balls I'd be able to stuff up you but now I guess I'll never find out." Kit smirked as he recalled his threat of a few weeks before.

Sportacus looked surprised for a minute before he smiled and shrugged, "I'm sure you could always get Pixel to do a simulation and let you know."

Kit smiled triumphantly as he made a mental note to pay Pixel a visit once the mediation with the two Sportacus' was over.


	15. Chapter 15

Stephanie rolled her eyes as Pixel calculated the parameters Kit had given him. She didn't approve and she'd made this clear, especially as Kit had been overly graphic in giving her husband the reasoning behind the odd request in front of her young daughter. When Kit had apologised and sat down to start playing dolls with little Lucy while he waited, Stephanie had secretly admitted to herself that she was curious about the results. She smiled as a thought came to her and she knelt down on the floor beside the engrossed clown.

"When are you and Robyn going to have kids?"

Kit nearly dropped the doll he had in his hands at this question, a shadow of pain crossed his features as he recovered from his surprise at the bluntness of the question when he had been concentrating so hard on his occupation.

Stephanie didn't miss this and she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, "What's wrong?"

"Well...to be honest I'm not sure me and Robyn can have kids. It's a long story and I don't think little ears need to listen to it. Besides I think Pixel's finished."

True to Kit's word, Pixel's printer whirred into life and spat out a print out with the results of his calculations on. His techno geared fingers picked it up and he turned around in his spinning chair to look at Kit.

"Working on the assumption that your juggling balls have a diameter of two inches and knowing that the human digestive tract is five metres or twenty feet long I've got your answer. You'd need roughly a hundred and twenty balls, give or take one or two if you wanted them to come out of his mouth." Pixel read as looked over the results.

"That is golden!" Kit laughed as he heard the news.

Lucky for Sportacus they'd made peace and even if they hadn't Kit knew he didn't have that many juggling balls in his bag.

Sportacus shuffled uncomfortably in his chair as his father paced the room. He'd wanted Kit to stay but his father had pointed out that with Kit involved in their mediation it wouldn't be entirely impartial and if anything a little one sided. Nine had admired Kit's conviction in his standing up for his friend and speaking out but he was aware that the young man could disrupt their communication. Thinking on his granddaughter's fiancé Nine broke the silence that had been present since he and his son had been left alone.

"Why does he have that tattoo on his forehead?"

Ten looked up, "He and Robyn had an argument...about me. He got it to apologise to her for being an idiot."

"He has a temper on him. Do they argue a lot?"

"No more than most couples. They're both stubborn and headstrong. They've had their ups and downs but they mean the world to each other." Sportacus Ten could see where his father was headed and he wanted to stop it.

Nine shook his head, "Perhaps they do but I can't say I approve. There's no telling what his temper could lead him to do if he became physical with Robyn."

"We're not here to talk about Kit and Robyn. We're here to talk about you and me."

The quick change of subject did little to waive Nine's focus and he caught the nervous undertone to his son's words. It told him that his assumption had already been proven and again he was reminded that he should have played a more active part earlier in his granddaughter's life.

Going along with the change of subject, for now, Nine looked at his son. "So if we're to talk about you and me, where do you suggest we begin?"

"First I need to say that I'm sorry. I never meant for anything to happen, I never meant to shame you or our family. I was foolish and allowed Lily to lead me astray, there's no excuse for what I did and there's no way I can change it or make up for it."

"I was furious when I found out, especially from her twisted lips." Nine sighed as he sat down, "I am still angry but I don't know if that anger lies more with you or myself. I didn't take a firm enough hand in dealing with Lily and I should have seen the signs. I failed you as a father and as a result you've failed me as a son. Pixel told me that a DNA test had been done and the results have gone missing. Your sister would not come here to attack Bessie for no reason so it's my guess that someone in town has the results. Once we know what they are we can speak again and try to decide where we go from here."

Sportacus Ten nodded, "Thank you. But you didn't fail me as a father. You did everything you could; you can't blame yourself for the mistakes I made."

"We'll see." Nine said as he got up and walked out of Ziggy's house.


	16. Chapter 16

Without opening her eyes she knew she was alone. She could sense two men outside of her room, guarding her. They seemed to have replaced the three men that had been in the room with her for much of her stay at the hospital. Feeling something in the hollow of her closed hand, Robyn shifted herself slightly in bed and opened her eyes. Slowly opening her hand she saw a small piece of paper folded tightly. Taking it into the fingers of her other hand she unfolded it and smiled as she read the words written on the paper in the familiar hurriedness of Kit's scrawl.

'_Robs,_

_Doc Cole is booting us out, he reckons we're making the place look untidy and it's starting to pong a bit in a here. I love you squiddly-dillions and I'll see you tomorrow when we're allowed to come back in._

_Kit._

_P.S Robbie and Sportasmurf say 'heeeeeellllllllooooooooo'_

Robyn was still smiling when she felt a familiar presence enter the room, one that could do so without the need for windows or doors. She folded the piece of paper and set it down on the locker beside her before turning to her guest.

"I haven't seen you in a long time, what did they do to you?"

Detective Miller smiled solemnly, he knew of who Robyn was speaking. "They were angry that I stopped them taking you that I broke their hold on you. What they did doesn't matter; I understand that Mordayne has shown you the origin of your powers."

"He did. Why though? Why did they do that?"

"Lily betrayed them. In childbirth with Cain she had almost lost her life, the Watchers were going to claim her and bring her before the Judges. They knew of her evil. She made a deal with them, spare her and she would give them the soul of her first born daughter. By trying to kill you she reneged on that promise. When you thought she had seen you, it was in fact Mordayne she saw. Once touched by the Watchers she was able to see them, she knew that he would claim you."

"What about Morgan?"

"Morgan is not what he appears to be. He is an echo of you, of all the things you have denied yourself. As your abilities have grown, so has he. His spirit remained with you, tied to your own. With every step you'd taken towards death in your earlier life he had taken steps towards life. When they turned your life support machine off when you were in the coma it was enough to bring him all the way back. Be wary of him. Though you have touched him and he has turned from Lily he will never be able to shake off his basest instincts to kill. He knows nothing else."

As the door to her room opened, Detective Miller disappeared.

"Ah, excellent. You're awake." Doctor Malone said as a way of greeting as he stepped into the room. "Doctor Cole said that you seemed to have had a nightmare yesterday afternoon."

"Yesterday afternoon? How long was I asleep?"

Doctor Malone checked Robyn's notes, "It's nine am. You've been asleep a good seventeen hours. We've been checking you every hour throughout the evening and night. Sportacus, Robbie and Kit left yesterday evening about half past five. According to your chart you've barely moved during the night, you must be feeling pretty stiff."

"I could do with a walk around. I take it that's not going to happen while I have my drain and drips attached still."

"Well the good news is we can remove your drain today, that and we can attach your drips to a drip stand so they can go with you if you feel as though you want to stretch your legs. I think there's a new facility that's opened up downstairs you'd enjoy trying out."

Intrigued, Robyn raised her eyebrow. "What's that?"

"It takes its name from the popular holiday category 'club eighteen to thirty', it's a social venture aimed at 'getting down with the kids' so to speak and allows patients to mingle with one another. You might even make some new friends and with the amount of time you've clocked here I think you'd be of benefit to those who haven't been here before."

"Sounds good. Where is it?"

"On the ground floor near the cafeteria, just a little ways down the corridor from it. If we get this drain out and you're feeling up for it I can show you."

Robyn nodded, excited at the possibility of getting out of her bed and the hospital room. She watched as Doctor Malone left the room briefly, returning with a sterile minor surgery kit. He placed it on a table that rested against the wall and wheeled it over.

"Right, I'm going to give you some pain relief before we start and then I'm going to pull your drain out. You might feel a little bit of discomfort but it will be over as quickly as possible. Do you want anyone in here with you to hold your hand?"

"No it's ok. I'm a big girl, I can take it."

Doctor Malone smiled as he picked up the vial he had rested on top of the minor surgery set. Taking a syringe in his other hand he injected the pain relief into the canula in Robyn's hand. He moved her bed sheets over slightly so he could see the drainage site and readied his sterile set, putting on his sterile surgical gloves and opening a dressing ready to place where the drain had been removed.

Robyn closed her eyes and bit her lip as Doctor Malone tugged at the drain and removed it. It came free and he placed a dressing over the hole left by the drain.

"All done," Doctor Malone smiled as Robyn opened her eyes, "That dressing may have to be changed regularly if there's any further leakage from the drain site but we'll be sure to check on it. If you want to come to the social lounge now I can quickly dispose of everything and wash my hands. We'll have to take the walk down slowly though as you've been in bed a couple of days and are still technically recovering from major surgery."

"That would be nice, thanks. Does Doctor Cole know that you're breaking his rules for bed rest?"

Doctor Malone smiled as he placed a finger to his lips, "Sssh. I won't tell if you don't."

With this, Doctor Malone gathered up everything and left the room. After thoroughly scrubbing his hands he went in search of a drip stand and wheeled it through to Robyn's room, bringing her guardians with him. Once he had unhooked her drips from the holder fixed to the bed he attached them to the drip stand. With assistance from one of the Network officers he helped Robyn to stand, letting her go when he was sure she was steady.

All four people walked out of the room, only one of them pausing to look into the space her long time friend had occupied. His warning reverberating through her memory.

"Be weary of him."


	17. Chapter 17

Their walk down to the social club was indeed a slow one. Doctor Malone had set the pace as he walked a few steps ahead of his followers, leading them down the corridor outside of the ward. He stopped as they reached the elevators and pushed the call button. They waited in silence as the numbers on the elevator display slowly increased until it beeped and the doors slid open, admitting them. Well aware that on occasion the elevator doors had a habit on closing suddenly, the Doctor wedged a glove in front of the sensor tricking the elevator into thinking something was blocking the door and thus holding it open. When everyone was in the elevator he removed the glove and punched 'G' on the selection panel.

As the doors closed and the elevator hummed into life as it descended, Robyn turned to the Doctor.

"Doctor Malone? I just wanted to apologise for what happened that day after you brought me home in your car. I was mean to you, I was rude and I frightened you."

Doctor Malone was about to respond when the elevator shuddered and those inside it were plunged into pitch darkness as the Hospital suffered a major power outage. A shrill scream rang from the elevator, echoing throughout the whole hospital.

Mounting the stairs as the lights went out, Sportacus' Nine and Ten heard the scream. His crystal beeping, Nine used it to light their way as the two men hurried up the stairs. Nine's crystal showed him the image of Robyn in the elevator with three men, one of which trying to keep her calm. Reaching the floor above where the elevator had stopped between floors he ran through the door into the corridor, followed closely by his son.

Wedging his fingers into the gap between the elevator doors, Nine heaved as he tried to force them open. After an agonising amount of time they began to move and with the help of his son they pushed the doors open. Both heroes looked down into the murky darkness of the elevator shaft and could see two little lights blinking on the roof of the elevator. It was six feet below them.

Doctor Malone held onto Robyn's sobbing form as he tried to console her. She was evidently scared of the dark and had screamed as the lights went out suddenly. He'd felt her lean against him as she'd lowered herself to the floor. He knelt as he followed her, using foresight to quickly adjust the height of the hooks on the drip stand so she didn't pull them out of her hand.

"What are your names?" He asked, looking up to where he thought the Network officers were standing.

A voice somewhere in the confined darkness replied, "I'm Leka, my colleague is Tobias. Is Robyn ok?"

"She'll be better if we can get her out of here. Can one of you see if you can find the ceiling hatch and push it open? It might give us a little bit of light and if anyone comes to rescue us they'll be able to get in."

"If?" Robyn shuddered.

Catching himself, Doctor Malone shook his head in the dark. "When, Robyn. Sorry I should have said when someone comes to rescue us."

Sportacus' Nine and Ten peered down at the elevator as they knelt on the floor, one hand at their feet while the other held onto the wall. Neither of them realised that they had adopted the same posture.

Having made his plan of action, Nine stood. "I'll jump onto the cables and climb down. Once I'm on the roof I'll open the hatch and start bringing people out. You stay here and I'll pass them up to you. When everyone's out I'll climb back up."

"No, dad. I'll go down and you stay here. I can get down there easier than you and I'm taller so I can lift people higher."

Before Nine could protest, Sportacus leapt into the elevator shaft and clasped hold of the cables. Shimmying himself down them he landed on the roof. The roof hatch looked as though it was being pushed upwards from someone on the inside and he deftly grasped it, lifting it away cleanly and putting it next to him.

"Is everyone ok?" He asked as he tried to pierce the darkness inside the elevator with his eyes.

"One of us will be better when we get out of here." A voice replied, Sportacus recognised it as Doctor Malone's.

"Do you want to bring Robyn out first?"

"That might difficult. She's still got her drips attached. I'll have to remove them. While I do that take one these men out first, they can help you."

"Ok, one of you guys grab my hand," Sportacus said as he reached his arm out into the elevator.

As Tobias was standing closest to the proffered hand he grabbed it and used it to pull himself up.

Doctor Malone felt for Robyn's hand in the dark and located her canula site. He carefully pulled away the dressing securing it and gripped the canula in his fingers. With a quick word of warning to Robyn he pulled it free, a sharp intake of breath told him it had stung her. To stop the site bleeding too much he removed his tie and tied it around her hand, with the absence of a replacement dressing it would do.

"Robyn's ready." He called as he helped her to stand.

Leka felt for Robyn and placed a hand on her waist, "Ok Robyn, I'm going to hold you here with both hands then lift you up when Sportacus is ready. He can pull you through the hatch and we'll get you on the roof. Are you ready?"

"I don't think I have any other option but to be ready do I?"

Leka's reply was a slight chuckle before his other hand found Robyn's waist. Clasping it tightly he bent his knees lifted her up. Sportacus reached out and held Robyn under her arms, as he pulled her out Leka guided her feet and gave her an extra boost. When she was clear of the hatch Sportacus set her down on the roof.

"Better?" Sportacus asked as he brushed her cheek with his fingers.

Instead of answering, Robyn looked up and saw the man she was sure she had caught sight of on being lifted through the hatch. His features seemed to darken as he looked at her properly. Something told her that he was going to want to have another talk with her, one similar to that which they had on their first encounter in the very same hospital she as in now.

Nine broke his focus on Robyn as he watched Doctor Malone being lifted out before the other Network officer joined him. With four people now stood on the roof of the elevator space seemed to be in short supply and it was time to get them back on terra firma. He signalled for one of the Network officers to climb up to help him lift people through the doorway. Leka quickly jumped up onto the cables and pulled himself up, swinging himself onto the ledge by Nine who helped him get up.

Robyn felt Tobias take her waist and she was once again lifted into Nine and Leka's waiting arms. They pulled her back, Leka letting go of her when Nine nodded to say that he had her. He gave her a concerned look before turning back to help the others pull the Doctor up.

As soon as he had been lifted through the doorway, Doctor Malone called for a nurse that had come into the corridor to fetch a dressing for Robyn's hand. She did so quickly and handed the dressing to the Doctor. Exchanging his tie for the dressing he pressed it firmly onto Robyn's hand until he was sure it had stuck.

Sportacus and Tobias climbed up the elevator cables, one after the other and were both helped the rest of the way by Nine and Leka.

With everyone safe it was time for Nine to turn his full attention on his granddaughter.


	18. Chapter 18

They sat face to face in the cafeteria, grandfather and granddaughter. A baked potato with cheese and coleslaw sat steaming on a plate next to side serving of salad. It had been untouched in the five minutes it had been there and Nine was beginning to lose his patience. He took a fork from beside the plate and stuck it into the centre of the potato; his eyes motioned to the fork.

"Eat," He urged solemnly.

Robyn shook her head, "I'm not hungry."

"Doctor Malone told me that your other Doctor was concerned that you hadn't been eating, you've evidently lost a lot of weight since I saw you last. Neither of us is leaving this table until you've eaten every last bite of food on that plate."

"I'm not hungry!" Robyn shouted, shooting up from her chair and shoving the plate of food across the table.

Nine pounded his fist on the table as he stood up to bring himself to eye level with his granddaughter, "You _will_ eat or I will_ make_ you eat."

Sportacus entered the cafeteria and saw his father and Robyn glaring at each other across the table. Walking towards them briskly he knew he had to step in. He too was worried about Robyn's not eating and had asked Doctor Malone for advice on the matter. He was sure his father's approach would do nothing to encourage Robyn to eat anything any time soon.

Thinking it best to sit between his father and Robyn, Sportacus pulled out a chair and sat at the end of the table. Nine and Robyn were still standing, both leaning on the table with their hands clenched and arms straight. Both with their jaws set.

'_They look so alike when they're angry_,' Sportacus mused as he noticed the similarities between the pair. Even if Robyn wasn't his daughter, she was still his father's granddaughter and bore some of his mannerisms.

Eventually Nine relented and sat down. Robyn sat down some seconds after, her eyes full of defiance.

An uncomfortable silence descended upon the trio. It was only broken by Nine drumming his fingers on the table. Gradually his finger drumming was joined by the squeaking of his boot as he jogged his knee up and down, his heel raised and its weight centred on the ball of his foot. All the while he hadn't broken eye contact with Robyn and she hadn't broken eye contact with him. The noise he was making was gradually starting to wear her down and agitate her.

Almost at her breaking point, Robyn was spared by the appearance of Kit, Robbie and her relief guardians.

Leka and Tobias stood from the table they'd been sitting at and approached Orucov and Peters. They took them aside as Kit joined Robyn and the two Sportacus'. On seeing Nine, Robbie hung back a little. So far they'd managed to avoid each other but now they were in the same room and within a few feet of one another.

"We were looking everywhere for you," Kit told Robyn as he sat down beside her and gave her a kiss, totally oblivious to Robbie's discomfort or the atmosphere surrounding the table, "It wasn't until we bumped into Doctor Malone that he told us where you were and what happened. Apparently someone's rung Doc Cole to tell him about what happened and he's on the war path."

Robyn grimaced, "I hope Doctor Malone is going to be ok."

"Why should you be concerned with him? It's his fault you were stuck in that lift in the first place; you should have been in bed!" Nine objected sharply.

"He was only trying to look after me!" Robyn snapped back, jaw set once more in anger and staring her grandfather down.

Nine returned Robyn's piercing stare, his ire arisen too. "Look after you? Look after you? If anyone was actually able to look after you we wouldn't be sitting here in this hospital right now. If you were being looked after properly you wouldn't be in a worse state now than the one you were in when I left town!"

"We have looked after Robyn, we've done our best. Th-" Sportacus Ten tried to interject.

"Done your best? You think doing your best is putting her in _his_ care?" Nine interrupted, breaking his eye contact with Robyn to fix Robbie with his ice cold glare and raise an accusatory finger at him.

Robyn bolted up from her chair, slamming her hands on the table and bringing Nine's attention fully back to her, "You leave him out of this! He has looked after me! What right do you think you have to come back here and start criticising the way I've been brought up or looked after?! If I remember rightly you spent the first twenty one years of my life completely ignoring me."

"And I know now I shouldn't have!" Nine shouted as he too shot up from his chair, "I am your grandfather and I have every right to criticise the incompetence of the people that surround you to keep you safe and make sure you're looking after yourself. That includes eating! You don't lose as much weight as you have by skipping one or two meals. Do they even know when you last ate?"

Kit, Sportacus and Robbie looked at each other, searching for an answer they couldn't find.

Nine chuckled bitterly, "I rest my case. I couldn't have expected anything less of Robbie Rotten and I don't know what this young fool you're engaged to is good for but you Sportacus, I would have expected more from. If you are her father you are the poorest excuse for one I have ever laid my eyes upon and I am ashamed at you."

Robyn leant right over towards Nine, so close her nose almost touched his. "Father or no, he has been a much better one than you could ever hope to be a grandfather! If you want to start criticising him on parenting skills I'd take a good long look in the mirror first!"

A low blow had been struck and Nine leaned back as Robyn turned on her heel and started to walk away from him. His suddenly cooled anger flared rapidly into life and he stormed after her. Reaching out for her to stop her progress he grasped her arm. Robyn retaliated by swinging herself around sharply, facing down her grandfather.

"_Don't touch me!_" She yelled, Nine's response was to try and grab at her again, this time around her waist so he could carry her as he had done on their first encounter. Again he found his arm knocked away, fuelling Robyn's anger further. "How dare you lay your hands on me?! I am not some ragdoll that you can just pick up and carry around whenever you bloody feel like it! Leave me alone!"

Nine's jaw set as if cased in concrete, he had never known any such insolence from anyone let alone anyone from his own family. He was about to retaliate when Doctor Cole came marching into the room.

"_What on earth is going on in here?_" The Doctor bellowed, "This is a hospital not a boxing ring! I will not tolerate this behaviour! Robyn I would suggest that your guardians escort you upstairs and back to your room. I will come and see you shortly. As for you six other gentlemen you will come with me."

As Orucov and Peters took Robyn from the canteen, she spared Nine a withering glance.


	19. Chapter 19

As they entered Doctor Cole's office they could see Doctor Malone sitting in a chair in the corner looking shaken. Evidently Doctor Cole had found him before he had stepped into the fray occurring in the cafeteria and he was angrier now than he had been during his discussion with the younger Doctor.

Before Kit could close the door behind him, being the last to enter the room, he felt it shift slightly in his hand and looked round to see Kathleen holding two chairs. Smiling awkwardly he let her in, helping her with the chairs as she set them down. She left without a word, only a quick smile in Sportacus' direction that seemed to say, '_good luck, you're going to need it._'

As the door clicked shut and those that wanted chairs took them, Doctor Cole cleared his throat and began to speak. "I don't want to know the nature of the argument that broke out downstairs or who started it, I do however know that it has something to do with an area of grave concern to us all. Robyn's further deterioration with regards to her weight has not gone unnoticed and we have reached a stage where we have no other choice but to intervene."

"Intervene?" Robbie asked nervously, not liking the sound of the word he had heard and spoken.

He wasn't alone.

Doctor Cole nodded, "Myself and Rory feel that Robyn's issue is no longer a physical one in its entirety and is becoming a mental health issue as well. She is almost dangerously underweight and she does not seem to be able to understand the implications regarding this. As Robyn's main mental health practitioner, Doctor Malone has had a discussion with a clinic dealing in eating disorders which can also offer her psychological help while building her back up to a healthy weight. Due to the previous concerns with her mental health it has been deemed that she is to be given no choice in the matter. She will go to the clinic and she will remain there until it is deemed she is fit to be released."

"What if she refuses? You know what she's like." Kit queried.

"If she refuses there is only one other step that we can take and that is to readmit her into the safe house. It will be much less gentle than the clinic and she may well be force fed if she refuses to feed herself."

Nine's eyes flashed in alarm, "You can't do that!"

"I have no other choice." Doctor Cole retorted, "Your granddaughter is very ill, not only physically but mentally also. If we do not intervene now the consequences will be too great. What we believe is happening to Robyn is classic post traumatic stress syndrome. She hasn't adequately coped with what happened in Toronto much less before it. In fact we feel that she's buried it, I know there's been confusion over Robyn's recent personality shifts and this is an atypical sign. Our first step will have to be making her come to terms with her rape-"

"She was raped?" Sportacus gasped, completely unaware of what had happened until now.

Kit put a hand on Sportacus' shoulder, kicking himself that he hadn't realised that no one had told Sportacus. "In Toronto. Cain took her away after he threw the Molotov's down on the city. I'm sorry; I thought someone had told you."

All of this was hard for Sportacus to absorb; it struck him that his father hadn't reacted at all at the mention of Robyn being raped. "You knew?" He breathed, disbelieving.

Nine could only nod, guilt filling him that he hadn't carried through with his intention to tell his son what Robyn had told him when he had questioned her. He had had every notion to take Robyn to see Sportacus but Doctor Malone had distracted him from his purpose.

Doctor Cole groaned as he placed a hand over his eyes, "No one told him about Toronto. Have any of you ever considered that the majority of your problems stem from the fact that you simply don't communicate? If you could all at least communicate, even slightly, Robyn would fare a lot better. It makes sense to me that Robyn would bury her problems because none of you ever talk about them. She never learnt to express her problems verbally and this is what happens."

Seeing that the penny had dropped amongst the men before him, Doctor Cole continued. "Myself and Rory are going to see Robyn now and broach what we've spoken about with her. In the mean time I strongly suggest that Langford's men get themselves off back to town and you four sit down and go through with one another everything you know about Robyn and fill each other in. Robyn is crying out for stability, she won't ever get better if you don't all work consistently and you can't do that while there are some things some of you know that others don't. You all have to sing from the same hymn sheet and there can't be anymore of this 'I didn't know that or you didn't tell me that'. You have to be one solid unit from now on, it's the only way forward from here and it should end the infighting between you."

With that, Doctor Malone rose from his chair and joined Doctor Cole who followed him from the office. Tobias and Leka waved a goodbye and they too went to leave, Tobias was stopped by Kit who called him back.

"If you get bored later we have half a tonne of washing up needs doing, you did such a marvellous job last time."

Tobias laughed but didn't reply. He walked with Leka out of the office who looked at him slightly confused. He'd explain it later.

Bessie hadn't noticed Morgan coming to sit beside her at the table. She was trying to fathom what she'd do about the knowledge she held, the secret she'd carelessly allowed her eyes to find when the sheet of paper that had fluttered onto her desk had done so unfolded.

She knew now what many others didn't. She'd wanted to destroy the paper, destroy the secret it held but she couldn't destroy the fact that she knew what it was. She'd held the sheet of paper above the shredder, pressed it to the sensor to start the blades that would rip it into diamond shaped pieces in motion but she had pulled it back before the shredder had been able to consume it.

Hand shaking she'd clasped it to her chest, hugging it as though she were hugging the girl the paper rightfully belonged to.

The girl she was going to give it to.

Once more it was within the safe confines of her pocket. As she had changed her clothes that morning it had followed. The Mayor hadn't noticed her switching the paper between jackets. She'd wanted him to; she'd wanted him to ask her what it was. She wanted to tell him, to open up to him. She knew he'd be angry but he'd understand.

He had to.


	20. Chapter 20

It had been hard but they'd started a dialogue, one more meaningful than any other they had had before. It had been painful as they'd relived old memories, explaining them to a man who knew nothing of them.

He had reacted as they had expected.

Nine's resolve had been sorely tested. Years of conditioning and finely honing his emotional control had almost come to nothing as he had ridden the rollercoaster that had been his granddaughter's life. It drove the point home to him that he had been absent through it all and had his pride and sheer stubbornness not stopped him from being in her life he would have seen it all happen.

Or he could have stopped it.

He'd been saddened when he'd heard of the times Robyn had almost been lost to them, the first time when she had been but a small child. He had become angry when he'd learnt of the arguments and the time that Kit had struck her. Something inside of him felt as though it was going to explode when the knowledge that she'd been drinking and smoking became the very tip of the iceberg of the things he had missed.

He had criticised the others attempts at caring for Robyn, accused them of being incompetent but it was he that was so. He cursed himself for his stupidity and wondered just how he'd be able to make up for what he had done, the pain he had caused his granddaughter through his years of neglect.

Kit seemed to pick up on Nine's musings and came to sat beside him, "You're sorry for not being there, I get that. If you want to be there now, which I think you do, you're going to have to shift gears a little bit."

"What do you mean?" Nine queried.

"The way Robyn receives you and acts with you depends solely on how you approach her. It's not the way it's always been but it's what I've come to work out. If you go in all guns blazing, that's exactly what you get back. If you take a gentler approach she responds in kind. Granted, sometimes it doesn't work but as long as you think happy thoughts and stay patient you'll be ok."

"After the encounters we've had do you really think she'd allow me to come anywhere near her let alone have a relationship with her?"

Robbie shrugged, "I don't know but you can be certain she'll test you. I think that's what she's doing now. You've missed her whole life; she always used to tell me how she was afraid you'd push her away if you ever did acknowledge her. Now you're here she's testing you to see if you will actually go or if you're going to stick around. If you want any sort of relationship with her you're going to have to do as Kit says."

"Carrying on how you have been isn't going to help for a start." Sportacus joined, "I know why you're acting the way towards you that you are. You're scared, you're trying to make up for everything you've missed and you feel responsible. You have to stop trying to force yourself on her and allow her to come to you."

Nine nodded, "How do I start?"

"Well for starters, just be a bit gentler." Kit smiled, "Try not frowning at her so much as well, not that I'd say start smiling at her all of a sudden or she might think you've just shit yourself."

Kit was cut off by Robbie bursting out laughing. Sportacus soon joined him before Kit couldn't help himself and started laughing too. Nine wasn't sure he liked Kit's use of language but couldn't deny the clown's sense of humour. One thing that struck him was how someone who had been in Robyn's life for three, nearly four years knew her so well when he was her grandfather and knew her so little.

As Kit's laughter subsided, he wiped tears from his eyes and turned back to Nine. "All jokes aside, Robyn doesn't respond well to angry faces. It took Langford a while to work that one out but the gentler approach works. They haven't argued in a while. It might take time but you'll get there. Underneath all of the storm and bluster, you love her and she loves you. I know she does. She's hurt because she doesn't think you love her. You have to show her that you do and bullying her about isn't going to do that. Besides which, she's already given you a nickname she calls you by all the time since she met you here. It's a spin off from grandpa and I think it's rather fitting."

"What's that?"

Smiling, Kit, Robbie and Sportacus responded in unison, "Grumpy."


	21. Chapter 21

Hours after he had left, Doctor Cole returned to his office. His discussion with Robyn had been a long and taxing one. He couldn't deny that Doctor Malone had been an enormous help and that he wouldn't have been able to carry through with their agreement had it not been for him. As he sat down at his desk he looked at the four men watching him, questions on their faces.

"How did it go?" Kit asked at last.

Doctor Cole yawned, "She wasn't happy but she understood. I've made the arrangements with the clinic and they'll collect her in the morning. She's fit enough to be discharged into their care and they can monitor her with the medical team they have there. Langford wasn't best pleased and I waited for half an hour while he cleared it with his superiors. His division head called me personally; he's a very nice man. He spoke to Robyn as well, they've agreed on some things and he said that he would confirm the security arrangements with the clinic."

"If she's going away for a while she's going to need some stuff packed up, clothes and the like." Robbie thought out loud, sad that he wouldn't be able to see Robyn but confident that she would get the specialist help she so desperately needed.

"I wouldn't worry about that Robbie; Robyn spoke to Trixie who's going to bring a bag up for her shortly. She wouldn't ask any of you men to go rifling through her unmentionables let alone pick out outfits for her. Lord knows what you'd come up with between you, I've never seen a more eclectically dressed bunch of people as you. It's bad enough that most of her clothes are too big for her at the moment until she puts on some weight."

Kit nodded before something sparked in his head and he reached over to grab the phone off of Doctor Cole's desk. He swiftly dialled a number and smiled when the phone the other side was picked up.

"Hi Trixie, it's me. See if you can find my bag, wherever Skip's dragged it this time. There should be some clothes in there amongst all the other rubbish, they're too small for me now but they might fit Robs. They'll be better than nothing until she's fixed up. Cool, we'll see you soon. Cheery bye bye."

Kit hung up the phone before smiling sheepishly at Doctor Cole. He'd caught Trixie just before she'd left and she'd seemed relieved that he'd told her about his clothes. He was sure she'd find something in there that would be ok for Robyn.

"Are we able to see Robyn before she goes?" Nine asked of Doctor Cole, eager to try and right some of his wrongs against her.

Doctor Cole shook his head but then noticed the look on Nine's face, "I wasn't going to allow her any visitors but you can have five minutes. She needs to rest. Her blood pressure was sky high when we got her back to her room after what happened in the elevator and then your battle royal in the cafeteria. I won't have her upset any further today. I'm sure you can find your way to her room? Go out of here and turn right, at the end of the corridor go through the double doors and you'll be back near the stairwell. Go up two floors and turn left out of the stairwell door into the corridor marked 'general surgery unit'. You'll come up to some double doors, go through them and head to the Nurses' station. Kathleen is up there, the young lady that brought the chairs in and she'll show you where to find Robyn. I'll phone ahead and tell her to look out for you, I'll also tell her to keep a close ear and the minute she hears even a hint of a raised voice or your time is up that she's to show you to the exit."

Nine nodded as he stood up. Having memorised the Doctor's directions he left the room and walked to Robyn's ward, all the time trying to turn around what he'd say to her in his head. Before he knew it he was standing at the Nurses' station with Kathleen looking up at him.

"She's expecting you." She said gently as she stood up from her chair and walked around the counter to stand next to Nine.

He followed her as she stopped in front of a door that she knocked on briefly and opened for him to pass through. She smiled reassuringly at his reluctance to enter and eventually he entered the room, the door closing softly behind him.

Robyn's eyes were low as her grandfather approached, fixed on something beyond his vision. He knew his time with her was short and he wanted to make the most of the opportunity he had been given to speak with her before she went away. He had to try and smooth things over and couldn't allow them to remain as they were.

Remembering what Kit had told him, his voice was soft when he spoke. "I'm sorry, Robyn. I didn't understand, I didn't want to understand what has been happening here. I know I have made a mess of things and continued being a stupid old man embittered by one stupid mistake that I've been too stubborn to accept. After all of our harsh words I will understand if you choose to have nothing to do with me but I won't be absent from your life any longer."

Kit's advice seemed to work as Robyn shifted her head to look at him. Her eyes seemed to search him while her mind formulated a response.

"We're both at fault," Robyn said when she spoke at last, stunning Nine. "You were only trying to help. You have my best interests at heart and I understand that, I do, but you can't make up for twenty one years in just a day. I know more about you than you knew about me when we first met, Sportacus told me about you often. You're a painfully proud man, your values implanted in you so deeply that when everything else is gone they're all you have to cling onto. I know you were scared to acknowledge me, to acknowledge that your daughter had bore me. You're not the first person to be scared that I might be like her or become like her and I know that you're only over protective and angry because you want to stop me turning as she did. You're overcompensating for the things that you've missed out on and you can't help it, this need you have to set things right is consuming you and is stopping you from thinking straight. It was unreasonable of me to speak to you the way I did earlier, you can't help how Lily turned out any more than you could have stopped what happened between her and Sportacus. I'm sorry for my disrespect towards you."

Nine's jaw set but not with anger, he struggled to reign in his emotions and keep the tears stinging his eyes from falling. He closed his eyes, opening them again sharply when he felt a hand entwine itself with one of his. Robyn was smiling softly at him. He lifted his other hand softly, brushing her cheek with it gently before he stood and released her hand.

Robyn sat up as Nine wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. She smiled against the nook of his shoulder as she felt him release the emotion he had pent up inside him. She felt a presence approach and shifted gently so that her grandfather released her. As the door opened he quickly brushed away the tears on his cheeks and turned to face Kathleen.

"I'm sorry, time's up." She apologised.

There was so much more he wanted to say to his granddaughter but he knew that there was time for that when they saw each other again. He turned to kiss her gently on the forehead and began to walk away, Robyn calling after him stopped him as he was about to close the door. He pushed it open so she could speak to him.

"I know you know I kept all the letters I sent you. Maybe when I'm back home we can sit and read them together?"

"I'd like that very much!" Nine agreed smiling broadly before he closed the door and followed Kathleen back to the stairs.

After his mediation with his son and the argument they'd had the following morning before he'd demanded to be taken to see Robyn he'd completely forgotten about Bessie and the sheet of paper he'd been about to read.

As Bessie sat at her desk once again in the Town Hall she read and reread the results in her hands. Word had spread that Robyn wasn't coming home; she was going somewhere where the needs of her mind and body could be treated. They were going to try and piece together the shattered girl that sat in the photograph smiling up at her.

She still couldn't bring herself to destroy the sheet of paper nor could she confess to her beloved Milford what she knew. Folding the paper once more she opened one her desk drawers and concealed it inside.

As she pushed the drawer shut she shivered, her secret was one she knew she couldn't keep forever.


	22. Chapter 22

Four weeks had passed since Robyn's admission into the clinic and she was due to come home. No one had had any contact with her but every so often reports had come in from the small team that had gone with her to the clinic, camping outside of it as they made their patrols and kept watch over the building. From what everyone had gathered from the brief reports, Robyn's treatment had been intense. She'd been given a regime to follow with regards to her nutrition, a strict timetable for meals containing specific food groups designed to build up her weight healthily.

At first things had been shaky but more positive news had come in. Robyn had taken her time to respond to the treatment but after a long session with the resident psychologist she had begun to eat. It seemed as though she had made friends at the clinic with three of the other patients and they'd been seen sitting in one of the communal lounge areas talking and laughing. Everyone had been cheered up when they'd learnt that Robyn had been seen pulling funny faces at her guardians against the glass of one of the French doors with two of her new friends.

Robbie laughed as he watched Kit racing around to make sure everything was set for Robyn's return to town. He had tidied the whole house, dusting and polishing every conceivable surface. Robbie had to admit he'd never seen the house so clean. He'd watched with amusement as Kit had jumped up and down at Nine setting a drink down on the coffee table for himself without a coaster and the younger Sportacus trying to diffuse the situation but ending up being swatted with Kit's polishing cloth as he accidentally spilled his father's drink on the carpet.

Once the two Sportacus' had been given their marching orders by the clown they'd gone back to Nine's airship while they waited for Robyn's arrival and he'd set about trying to clean up the mess.

"I'm going to have to go over the Mayor's and steal some of their carpet stuff. I'm not going to be able to get this tea stain up without it. I'll be back in a minute." Kit said as he got up and rushed from the house, leaving a still chuckling Robbie shaking his head.

Mayor Meanswell had just finished his breakfast when he heard someone knocking on the door. Looking at his two companions briefly he got up and went to answer it. Opening the door he found Kit on the other side, looking over his shoulder at something and he cleared his throat loudly when Kit failed to notice that the door had been opened and the younger man knocked on his head, thinking he was still knocking on the door.

A startled Kit turned around and laughed when he realised what he'd done, "I'm sorry Mayor, I didn't hear you open the door. Can I come in for a second?"

"Of course you can, Kit." Acquiesced the Mayor as he stood aside.

Kit passed through and winked a hello at a giggling Bessie who had seen him knocking on the Mayor's head. He smiled briefly at Morgan's guards who stood smiling before his eyes found Morgan himself. Without caring for the man's reputation Kit extended a hand to him.

"Hi, Morgan. I'm Kit; we haven't exactly had much of a chance to introduce ourselves."

Morgan slowly took the hand being held out to him and shook it softly, "You're Robyn's fiancé. I already know about you than you may think. Something tells me that you didn't just come here exclusively to meet me though."

"Truth be told I didn't but I couldn't have ignored you. I've always been curious though, why did you help Robyn? By breaking her out of Lily's and bringing her here you indirectly saved me. You must have some balls for having betrayed Lily but I still don't see why you did it. To be fair no one does. What makes someone like you turn against someone you've been so close to?"

Morgan breathed deeply as he absorbed the question, "It's about how we live in captivity. We either escape, or die trying. I am beyond redemption for my crimes but Robyn is still an innocent. I couldn't watch her become as I am, as our mother is. She has a light within her that Lily wanted to engulf in her darkness. It's a light that must never be allowed to sputter and die. Lily knows that if it does Robyn has the potential to be more powerful than she, she had designs for Robyn to make that so and removing you from the picture would have been one of the steps on Robyn's descent into our world."

Kit frowned as he listened to what Morgan had said about his being killed being one of the steps towards darkness for Robyn. He wanted to get his future brother in law to elaborate on what he had evidently glossed over but the Network officer's radios beeping interrupted him.

'_All officers be advised, Robyn's home_.' The radio crackled.

Forgetting about what Morgan had said, Kit punched the air as he dashed out of the Mayor's house and nearly ran into Robyn who'd come to find him. Shaking off his surprise he swept her off her feet and spun her around, laughing as he set her down and gave her a massive kiss.

"You look amazing!" He exclaimed as he stepped back from her and ran his eyes up and down her body.

Robyn had returned to a normal weight, her cheeks had filled out and colour had returned to her skin. She was the same Robyn he'd first met almost four years before and there was an evident peace within her that she hadn't had for months.

Kit grabbed Robyn again and pressed her against him. He smiled and tickled her ear with his lips as he felt her breasts against his chest, now she was again a normal weight they'd gone back to their normal size. "I missed these."

Robyn giggled as she felt Kit reach a hand up between them and brush her breasts before he abruptly pulled his hand away and let her go on hearing a very loud, 'AHEM!'

Sportacus' Nine and Ten were stood, legs agape, arms folded and with stony expressions on their faces. Kit blushed before a dangerous idea crept into his head. He winked at Robyn before walking over to Sportacus Ten.

"I missed yours too." He said, squeezing Sportacus' pectorals and making a honking sound as he did so.

Sportacus laughed as he swatted Kit's hands away, he laughed harder when Kit made a similar attempt with Nine who jumped back to avoid the inappropriate contact. The others who had come out to see Robyn laughed as well. They watched as Robbie grabbed Robyn, lifting her into a bear hug before staring daggers at Kit and sticking his tongue out at him.

"It's my turn!" Robbie told Kit as he playfully tried to stop Kit taking Robyn back.

Kit looked at Robbie with mock outrage and loudly declared, "Robbie you dirty bastard!"

Robyn sank to her knees with laughter as Robbie looked at Kit aghast and stamped his foot, "That's not what I meant!" He protested, trying not to laugh and turning red with the effort. "I meant it's my turn to welcome Robyn home. I wasn't talking about touching her titties!"

Everyone's laughter grew as Robbie realised what he'd just said and Robyn buried her reddened face in her top. Nine shook his head and rolled his eyes as everyone seemed to fall about him laughing. Holding on tenuously to his control he stepped over his son who was rolling on the floor clutching his sides and headed over to Robyn who he deftly picked up. Her eyes met his briefly before she looked past him and saw the one other person in town that wasn't laughing.

Bessie.

She seemed frozen to the spot as Robyn approached her. Her hand reached into her jacket as she pulled something out from the pocket inside. Robyn was a foot away from her when she lifted the sheet of paper with a shaking hand. As they watched what was happening everyone stopped laughing.

As if lost in a dream, Robyn took the sheet of paper from Bessie. In her heart she knew what it was but her head wouldn't accept it as she unfolded it and her eyes read the printed words upon it.

It couldn't be true.

"You interfering old cow!" Robyn hissed, balling the paper up in her hands. "This is why Lily attacked you. She came here to give it to you and you took it. You had it the whole time and you never told me. How could you do this? How could you lie? You've read it haven't you? You know what it says and still you never told me."

Bessie was sobbing violently as she tried to plead with her young friend, "I'm sorry Robyn! I though-"

"_It's not about what you thought_!" Robyn screamed, "_It's about my life! My whole life! Not just my life but Sportacus' as well! I can't believe you did this to me!"_

Everyone was watching them, surprise and disappointment plain on their faces. They had never expected this, not from Bessie. Burning with an unquenchable anger Robyn turned on her heel and stormed past the assembled group towards her only refuge. Sportacus was the only one that dared go after her, he ran after her as Mayor Meanswell approached Bessie.

"What have you done Bessie? What on earth have you done?"

Sportacus sat silently next to Robyn on the arbour. She hadn't tried to turn him away; she turned to him as she took one of his hands in both of hers. Tears rolled down her cheeks as with his other hand he brushed her cheek with his fingers.

"What did it say?" He whispered softly, fearing the answer.

Robyn squeezed Sportacus' hand as she replied, "The results were..."

_To be continued..._


End file.
